Zenith Point
by River Eyes
Summary: "But since my transition, my life is no longer just about me, or so this is according to Headmaster Cross." A fiery, vibrant young girl enters a cold, dead world against her will- but not everyone at Cross Academy has been brainwashed to ignore the truth.
1. Dusk Into Night

**Author's Note:**

**So I am currently on bed rest due to the fact that I somehow managed to knock myself out yesterday while getting ready to go to class. Still haven't figured out how I did that...but anyway, as I was bored and going through my computer, I found this story that I wrote more than a year ago. It's not finished, but I got a good deal into it and then never actually did anything with it besides read it for entertainment. This seemed like kind of a shame to me, so I decided to post it for the entertainment of others besides myself. :)**

**I'm not sure that I'm really feeling the first-person intro, so I shortened it. Most of the story will be in third-person.**

**The (brief) story behind this story can be found at the bottom of this page for anyone who's interested. Also, I own nothing. Not even my own soul. XD**

I wake up often at the zenith point of night and day. There is something within me, I think, that attracts me to this time. No mystery what that could be, is there? No, no mystery at all.

Although I know this is not true. It's wrong to say that there is no mystery about me, even for something as small and unimpactful as this. Almost everything about me is a mystery, and I've been learning my way around the shadows of my foggy past for my whole life. From my continued survival to my very existence, from my birth to my true parentage- what is there to be known about those things? Whatever there is, I don't know it. I don't know anyone who does know, as the only things I've ever heard are hazarded guesses. And this world is so vast and so complex, I know I will probably never find the people who do know, if they're even still alive. If they haven't already forgotten.

I live in the zenith point between night and day. I slide between the two like an actor transitioning from her stage role to her true self, except I have forgotten which part of me is true and which has been created. Really, I don't think it's that simple. I feel like both parts of me are just as real, like I have some weird kind of personality disorder, but really, I am only one person. One person, just made up of two sides. I feel myself relate to the world through them both, vibrantly, vividly, gracefully. As long as I don't ponder too much about what I am and what it means, I can get along just fine.

Sometimes I sleep, and when I awaken, I always feel a tiny moment of confusion about whether it is day or night, and what that means, and where I should be. For most of my life, even after my transition, I was accustomed to using the night for sleeping, so there was never any dichotomy between the two. It is only recently, since I first began attending Cross Academy, that this crisis in my identity has become more pronounced, the difference between day and night become part of my quiet personal battle.

I know that I would have been perfectly happy to remain solely in the daylight, had it all been up to me. Despite what I had become, or what I had always been, it would have been entirely possible for me to ignore that new, other side of me completely. But since my transition, my life is no longer just about me, or so this is according to Headmaster Cross. In the darkness, my existence is a vital link to something both tremendously important and utterly irreplaceable, and it is my duty to uphold that link by becoming a participant in that world. Nevermind that I don't particularly want to be a vital link to anything. I'd rather just be a painter. But Headmaster Cross says that the most noble thing I can do with my unexpected life is to try, so I agreed to enter that world. Not to immerse myself fully- no, hardly that- for if this scene can be likened to wading into a pool, then I have barely gotten my ankles wet. I am still primarily made up of daylight's beams, and very reluctant when it comes to darkness. It hasn't been going that well either, I can honestly say, and this is only fueling my desire to get out entirely, even though I know that part of my failure thus far in the night world is my own doing. Deep down, I think that both sides of me really just want to ruin Headmaster Cross's half-thought-out plan, so I can shrug, say I tried, and then bail out and return to peacefully sleeping my nights away. But not yet, not quite yet. There is something I must finish first.

/

"Reina!"

A dark-haired, intensely beautiful young girl stood up after a moment's pause, having finished stuffing her things back inside of her backpack. She pivoted her head so she could see her friend approaching. Asuki padded up beside her and surveyed her preparations with a critical eye. "So you really are leaving? Sure you don't want to stay and hang out some more, at least? We're going to play apples to apples!"

Reina shook her head at the undeniably tempting offer. "Can't, Asuki. Sorry. I'm just not feeling that well tonight. I think some medicine and a restful night in my own bed is what I need."

Asuki nodded her loosely braided head, meandering over to the refrigerator and fishing something out. "You sure have been sick a lot lately." She commented off-handedly as she dug around. Out of her sight, the other girl stiffened for a moment, then relaxed as she emerged. "Here." Asuki said, handing her friend a popped can of root beer and a grin. "For your health." Reina took it with an easy smile, and made a show of knocking her head back with the first sip. She picked up her backpack and grappled with her coat. The two girls hugged by the door. "Reina's leaving!" Asuki hollered back into her warm home, which brought fourth a chorus of cries of "Bye, Rey-rey!" and "Don't be sick for club tomorrow!"

"I'll see you tomorrow." Reina murmured gratefully, and Asuki nodded and slid back into her house with a wave. _Thanks for not pressing me_ was what the long-haired girl really wanted to say, but didn't. Reina met the cold night air head-on and she jogged out to her car, flinging her school backpack into the trunk where it collided with a simple white canvas bag embossed with the logo of a different school. She had been hanging out at Asuki's house, watching TV and playing games with her friends after school that day. Afternoon had turned into evening, and soon the girls had ordered a pizza and decided to have a sleepover in order to prolong the fun. Reina had regretfully told them that she was feeling too ill to stay. Actually, she was close to being late for class.

_Mental note, Reina,_ she thought to herself as she backed out of Asuki's long driveway into the glow of the setting sun; _The illness excuse has become overused. It's time to think up some different stories._

As she drove along the highway into the next town, Reina played her music softly from her dashboard CD player as she stared out the windshield, watching the last whisps of warm sunset color disappear on the horizon. The night was falling. Deep within herself, she felt a quiet, mysterious presence beginning to stir, a presence whom she did not exactly hate, but whose relative unfamiliarity jarred her. She turned up her music and drove onward.

Reina stopped at a convenience store at the edge of town, and fished a short list of common breakfast ingredients out of her purse. It was written in the messy hand of the Headmaster, and Reina spared the sloppy list an exasperated smile before locking her car and striding quickly into the store. The small convenience store was primarily full of men at this hour, probably all single men who were looking for a cheap and easy meal in lieu of actual cooking. Reina went about gathering the ingredients on the list like an automaton on a mission, glancing neither to the left nor the right. She had learned that it was not wise to meet the eyes of strange men while she was out alone in public; if they got the wrong idea from her gaze, they would often try to waylay her, and then she would either have to turn them down abruptly, or try to figure out a way of brushing them off politely. Both methods were troublesome and would cause her to be late. Moving faster than she probably should have amidst a crowd of humans, Reina made it to the front of the checkout lane, only to look up and discover that the cashier was a spotty teenage boy around her own age who was staring at her as if transfixed. Curses. He was unapologetically slow in ringing up her purchases, gazing at her the whole time, and Reina had to resist the urge to grab the scanner and do it herself. Normally she would have been more forgiving of hapless human males such as this one, but she was currently pushing late and somewhat annoyed about having missed out on a slumber party. As he bagged her ingredients, he smoothed back his hair and said something along the lines of "Haven't seen you in here before…." Reina just nodded. He probably wouldn't see her again, either, if he was going to be this hopeless in her presence. She took her groceries, being careful to avoid brushing his hand with hers, and headed for the door. The men all stared as she departed. As she swung the glass door open, Reina caught a glimpse of her reflection in a circular mirror poised above the entrance. Long, dark brown hair arranged back in a trailing bun, almost seeming to be illuminated from within. A slender waist, long, shapely legs, noticeable breasts, delicate-looking hands and feet, an alluring, well-proportioned face. She was wearing a long winter dress of deep, dark red, and tights that tantalizingly (apparently) displayed her calves. Her hair was complimented with a red bow, and her earrings and necklace gleamed. She looked like a doll from her own sweet Christmas dreams when she had been a child. Beautiful. Inhumanly perfect. Reina hurried out the door, away from that troubling, lovely reflection. She slid into her car and returned to the road.

Cross Academy was not exactly part of the town, and everyone knew it. Its elite student body did not have established connections to the commoners in town, and when Reina came down here to shop or to relax, she always heard the townsfolk speaking of Cross Academy, in slightly awed tones, as _that_ _place,_ a place apart. Townsfolk did not have any reason to go inside, as employment there was exclusive, and aside from regular scheduled vacations or family emergencies, it was difficult for the students there- both day and night classes- to procure permission to leave. This was said to be the price to pay for attending a high-class boarding school academy that wanted its students to focus on academics instead of socializing, and provided them with a lavish boarder lifestyle to keep them happy. Reina knew the truth, however, as did the night class and a select few humans within the day class. The widely admired night class at Cross Academy was made up entirely of elite, aristocratic vampires. And this provided complications for everyone involved.

Reina had actually never been to the night class dormitories within all the few months that she had been attending Cross Academy. She did not pull into that side road as the academy came into sight. Instead, she drove straight up to the main gate and leaned her head out of the window, so that the old man who guarded the entrance from within a tiny blue booth could assess her identity. He nodded, pushed a button, and the silver gates creaked open, allowing her car to pass through and drive up to the school part of the academy. She parked her car in front of a currently unused structure, which was being remodeled into a campus 'guest building,' and slipped out of the car, popping her trunk and taking from within the pure white bag and the grocery sack. The stars were beginning to come out as she paced up the stairs of the ivy-covered structure and paused at the door. Bending down to eye level with the lock, Reina straightened the pointer finger of her right hand and watched as it slowly lengthened into a metallic, shining claw, which penetrated the keyhole. With a careful twist of her hand, the lock was released and Reina pushed open the door, stopping at the doorstep and closing her eyes. As she always did, Reina allowed her senses to run the length of the building and around it as well, searching for any movement, for life. Nothing worrisome responded. Aside for some squirrels in the attic, she was completely alone. Her long nail shrunk into a normal finger once more. The dark-haired girl padded down a pair of dusty, abandoned corridors until she reached a certain room, which she entered and tossed her bag onto the bed. There was no light, but Reina did not need light to see. The room contained a well-made bed and a clean dresser, and nothing else besides. Opening up her white canvas bag, Reina dragged from within it a pure white uniform, bordered with intricate black embroidery and clearly exclusively made. She laid it out on the bed and proceeded to undo the buttons on the back of her red dress, peeling it off her body from the top down. She pushed her tights down off her legs as well, and replaced them with black leggings that ran up to her middle thighs. Still dressed only in leggings and a plain red bra and panty, Reina hurried to the window and peered out as she heard the ten-minute bell begin to ring for the night class. This was also the final signal for the day class that they needed to be heading back to their dorms. From a distance, Reina could see a few black-clad day class stragglers beating a retreat down the path which led to the bridge of the sun dorm. She could also see a flock of white-clad students moving gracefully like doves, flitting around on the balconies of the school buildings, heading to their respective classes. There was a half-hour break between the time the night class students emerged from their dormitory and the time that their classes started, which allowed for them to prepare and socialize. For Reina, it meant that she did not have to participate in the infamous 'entrance' every evening with the rest of them. She hurried back to the bed and picked up the white dress-skirt uniform, quickly stepping into it and pulling it up around her body. She adjusted the bow, folded the collar, and smoothed the pleats in the skirt, before cramming a pair of dark brown boots onto her feet to complete the Cross Academy uniform. She folded her day clothes up on the bed and took them in her arms. In place of the uniform that her been in her bag, she unloaded the ingredients of her shopping bag in over her books and papers, and proceeded to swing her way out of the room and back down the hall. She locked the door behind her again as she left, popped her trunk once more, and set her red dress and other clothes gently inside. Then she turned to face the distant school, buried her keys deep within her skirt pocket, and ran.

She ran like the wind; she ran faster than a human eye could follow. She approached the main school hall rapidly, skirted gracefully around a group of chattering day class girls, who were craning their necks to get a final look through the windows, and leaped from the ground onto a deserted balcony on the third floor. Balancing herself on the ledge, Reina turned around to take in Cross Academy in all its expansive, lavish glory. The glowing lights of the buildings beamed out from in between deep patches of darkness. From way up high, Reina could see all the way to the edges of the academy, surrounded by dense forest on every side. The perfect cover for a school such as this. Reina re-adjusted the dark red bow which emblazoned the front of her uniform, and stepped deftly off the ledge. She ghosted through the double doors, and entered into a school taken over by the creatures of the night.

Most of the students were in their classes by now, the doors opened wide to reveal a silent and half-attentive atmosphere, as the occupants waited for the final bell to ring. A few groups were still hanging around outside of doors, immersed in conversation. Reina passed them by without acknowledgement. She descended a flight of stairs and glided swiftly across the darkened hallway of the second floor. Hefting her school bag once again over her shoulder, she slipped inside a certain classroom in the middle of the hall, and made her way to the back of the stadium seating arrangement.

For one inevitable moment, a moment which she hated, the vampire eyes of everyone in the classroom turned her way in order to gauge the new arrival. Then, disinterested, they looked away again, and Reina was able to slip gratefully out of the spotlight and take her seat in the highest section of the room. No one else sat back here- there was plenty of space, it wasn't as if the class was packed. There was no assigned seating either, so all of the students tended to shift around in location a fair bit, according to their inclinations for that night. Reina always sat in the same seat in the very back, presiding over the rest of the class like a detached figurehead, like a goddess of stone who did not speak. This was how she preferred her time at Cross Academy to be spent- silent and alone.

Down in the middle section of the classroom was a group of aristocrats whom everyone could not help but know at this academy. They were of prominent political and social families within the vampire world, and many of them had influence that extended to the human world as well. They were the group which was privileged to be closest to the pureblood lord of this academy, who had not yet decided to grace them with his presence. Sitting still in a multi-row huddle were the well-dressed figures of Hanabusa Aido and his cousin, Akatsuki Kain. Next to them were Takuma Ichijo and Ruka Souen, speaking quietly together about something. Seated languidly in the row behind them were Senri Shiki and Toya Rima, who, from all that Reina had seen, were rather detached characters themselves, but permanently attached to each other. Their group was an exclusive one, even within the exclusivity of the night class overall. She watched them for as long as their eyes remained forward; when Akatsuki Kain took a moment to glance around the classroom, Reina stared fixatedly at the board. Soon that board would be filled with notes and terms, when the class was underway. She proceeded to take out her pen and notebook from her bag, and flip it open to a blank page. Reina actually enjoyed this class, vampiric history, and she was quite dedicated to soaking in all the information she could. Even if most of it was not to her liking.

Reina did not need to look at the door again to know when the pureblood lord had come in. A hush spread over the classroom which not even the teacher himself could command, and Reina felt her annoyance rise. She honestly did not understand these students. Kaname Kuran came in the same way every single night, after all. Perhaps it would have been surprising if he hadn't shown up, but whenever he entered a room, the vampires inside- who went to _school _with him- reacted as if seeing him for the first time. Reina tried to imagine how it would feel to be constantly greeted by that breathless, anticipating hush everywhere she went. She gritted her teeth and tossed the idea out of her mind. Horrible.

And that wasn't the only annoying thing. As the handsome pureblood sat down amidst his group of followers, greeted all around by murmurs of "Kaname-sama," and "Good evening, Kaname-sama," he raised his regal gaze to the back of the classroom and _looked_ at her. He did this every single night, as if making sure that she was there. And of course, everyone else in the classroom obediently followed his gaze, so for yet another moment, Reina found herself inundated by prying pairs of eyes. Bothering hell. She glowered at her empty notebook page until she was saved by the arrival of the teacher, who pulled all the eyes forward toward him. He began to speak, and Reina pushed her annoyance aside, drowned it deep in the depths of her supreme detachment, and allowed herself to become lost in his world of history, a place where she was not.

Today they were learning about the various recent treaties which had been made between vampires and vampire hunters, and had been broken repeatedly by both sides. Reina shook her head in half-formed bemusement as she took careful notes. Honestly, with the amount of time that some vampires had been alive, one would think that they would have discovered a way to keep the peace and better their societies by now. But no. Perhaps they merely lived for bloodshed, just like their predecessors before them had done. How depressing.

Toward the end of the hour-and-a-half lesson, Reina glanced out the window and beheld two figures standing on a balcony of the building across from them, dressed in black uniforms with white-and-red armbands. One was a girl, short and petite with shoulder-length brown hair. She carried a long, collapsible staff, the Artemis rod, attached to her thigh. The other was a boy, tall and lanky, with floppy locks of silver. He toted a special gun, the bloody rose, attached to a chain that wound to his wrist. They seemed to be talking for a moment- then the boy strode quickly away, and the girl, with an innocently baffled expression, followed. The light on the balcony dimmed as she closed the door behind her. Reina returned her attention to the classroom with a complacent turn of her head. The adopted children of the headmaster, the Cross Academy guardians, were none of her business.

When the lesson came to an end at 11:30 pm, Reina stood up with the rest of the students and thanked the teacher before joining in the queue at the door. She gave the silver-haired vampiric man a small half-smile as she slipped out of the classroom, just in time to see him return it. Reina had always sensed that this particular teacher was aware of her dedication and rather liked her for it, even though he had yet to actually hear her voice. She wished that he taught all her classes. He, like Asuki, did not press her. As she moved away toward her next class, she was stopped by a smooth, light voice at her shoulder. "Good evening, Reina-san."

Reina's eyebrow did not twitch, but it was a near thing. She halfway turned, and replied in a calm tone, "Good evening, Kaname-sama."

He was standing behind her with his band of followers nearby, just far enough away to avoid flanking him, but they were all watching the exchange. Another horrible thing. Reina hoped that that was all, but it was not. The tall, dark-haired young vampire moved closer, and indicated toward her bag. "You have spices in your bag. I can smell them. Are you going to cook something?"

It seemed to be Kaname Kuran's personal goal to oblige Reina to say at least one thing per night. As for now, Reina thought that he might be getting at something, but it was too late to not have the spices in her bag. She shook her head evenly. "No. I merely picked them up earlier this evening, because the headmaster asked me for them. He's going to try to make homemade duck with them."

"I see," said Kaname, smiling his charming vampire smile. Behind him, Reina spotted Ruka's face darkening. She did not smile back. "It must be nice for you to be so mobile, Reina-san. Sometimes the academy can feel so confining, if you're here too long."

What Reina wanted to say was _I think I've been here too long already._ What she actually said was "Hmmmm." They had started to walk away from his group, down the hall to their next class. Kaname leaned in close, as if he wanted to ask her something very important. But all he said was, "So I assume that the smell of the spices doesn't bother you, then?" When she shook her head, he nodded at the classroom door. "That's good." He murmured. "You're lucky." Then the teacher arrived, and he gave her a tiny bow. "Enjoy your classes, Reina-san." He smiled again, and drifted quietly, elegantly inside.

Reina thought he knew. Or at least, ever since she had first come here, she had sensed that he suspected. She didn't think it was just a paranoid feeling, for she didn't sense it around anyone else but him. Now, like most other times, she was seized with the overwhelming urge to find out for sure, to seize the sleeve of his pure white uniform and demand he tell her what he knew. But that would have given it away. And Reina realized that whatever Kaname Kuran might or might not suspect about her true identity, he had not spread his suspicions around the rest of the night class. And although she might desire to find out his reasons for this discrepancy, she knew that it was probably safest to say nothing, and let things continue on as they were. Still, she watched him warily as he walked to his seat. He was a pureblood; she wouldn't put anything past him. How much did he know, and why was he keeping quiet?

"The nerve of that girl!" Reina heard Ruka complain as she passed by the classroom with half of her group in tow. "Snubbing Kaname-sama like that, when he's been kind enough to talk to her at all! That's a common vampire for you; no respect. Headmaster Cross should never have let her into the academy."

Reina leaned against the door and felt Ruka's scorching gaze glance off her as she passed by. Unbeknownst to anyone, she smiled to herself, an amused, fang-toothed smile as she stared at the moon sailing through the darkened clouds. _If only you knew,_ she thought, feeling the deepened part inside of her stir and crack open its eyes for the barest sliver of a moment. _If only you knew!_

This next class Reina did not enjoy nearly as much. It was all about getting along in the vampire world, and it was geared toward aristocrats. The class material mainly revolved around propriety- learning cultural skills such as dancing, conversation, and musical instruments- and practicing the ways in which to treat other vampires, depending solely upon their social status in this world, their 'level.' Reina did not take notes here. She did not feel that this was something she needed to know. Not only that, but this classroom was much smaller than the last, so she was forced to sit much nearer to her classmates. Reina was slouched down in her chair about halfway through the night's lesson, listening to another numbing lecture about the importance of proper behavior according to class distinction, when someone in the front raised their hand and questioned, "But what about half-bloods?"

The classroom went quiet again, the same type of silence that greeted Kaname Kuran's arrival among them every night. Reina did nothing. When she had first started as a student here, she knew she would have jumped out of her skin at a question like that, so she was quite proud that she managed not to bat an eye. She almost missed the teacher's reply.

"Half-bloods?" the middle-aged man repeated, raising his eyebrow at the questioner. "Well, I'm afraid that kind of thing can probably only ever be a hypothetical question. As you all know, half-blood vampires have become nearly extinct in our world, despite the best efforts of our greatest minds to bring them back."

"But there are still a few living in the world today." The student persisted. "They're protected by the vampire council, but still, one of us might meet one of them someday. Our families have connections, you know. What should we do if we ever meet a half-blood?"

The teacher pursed his face in thought. "Well, I assume that one would treat such a creature in the same way- relatively- that one would treat a pureblood. With great respect and deference, I should think. As you all know, purebloods and half-bloods ruled the vampire world side-by-side for hundreds of years after the transformation of the nature of half-bloods, which allowed them to rise to equal power and prominence. This was, of course, before the half-bloods began to die out at an alarming rate. Such creatures symbolize the ultimate fusion of two separate species, human and vampire. A half-blood's powers, as well as their very existence, are mysterious and admirable. And since there are so few of them left within our world, each one is all the more precious and wondrous."

"How many do you think are left?" called out another student. The classroom was completely silent. Interest was running high, thick in the air.

"There are only about 100 half-bloods known to be in existence at this time." The teacher replied, shaking his head at the dismal number. "Although there is no doubt that there are more out there somewhere in the world, it cannot be denied that the race has almost disappeared. Therefore, unfortunately, I wouldn't worry too much about the proper etiquette for greeting a half-blood. Most probably, none of us will ever meet one."

Slouched over in her chair at the back of the classroom, Reina kept her eyes on Kaname Kuran as the teacher gave a sigh and returned to his lesson. The pureblood boy did nothing out of the ordinary; he stared politely at the teacher throughout his tangent, and then returned to taking notes on the lesson at hand. His face was pale and impassive, and he did not once shift his eyes away from his notebook. However, Reina could not shake her deadpan feeling of unease as the teacher lamented the terrible scarcity of half-bloods. She felt, with some kind of almost sensory certainty, that Kaname was sparing her his gaze on purpose.

**Well, that's the first chapter. :)**

**The story behind this story: I had originally planned on writing this story from the point of view of a female canon character. My first choice was Yuki, and I tried really hard, but... *doom* It's not that I don't like Yuki, but human Yuki is honestly way too much of a Mary-Sue for me to feel comfortable writing. She didn't interest me as the main character for this story. So then I tried Ruka, Rima, Sara, etc... But the problem with all of them was that I need my main character to come into the story hating Kaname. It's a major plot point, and I couldn't make any of them do that without making them insanely OOC, almost like different people- especially Yuki and Ruka. **

**So then I finally figured, "Well, if OOC is going to be a problem, I might as well just create an entirely new character!" Thus Reina was born, and once I solidified her personality and motivations, the story started taking off in completely new directions, which was cool. In order to stretch my writing abilities, I wanted to make Reina a character who is VERY different from my other OC, Lydia. While Lydia is average-looking with a good personality, Reina is beautiful, but her personality is...well, you'll see. Their motivations are opposite as well. While Lydia wants primarily to come in, Reina's only desire at this point is to stay OUT. We'll see how she goes about this in ensuing chapters.**

**Finally, what do you, dear readers, think about all this? I'd love to read your comments/reviews! They will make me a happy panda! :3**

**Thank you. **


	2. Night Into Morning

That was the way it was, then. The multifaceted lesson ran from 11:40 pm to 1:10 am, after which the vampire students had an hour-long break, to do with as they pleased. Many gathered themselves downstairs in the refectory, sipping on water suffused with blood tablets and making conversation. Others took a moonlight stroll out by the fountains, or read in the library. Reina knew that they did these things, but she had never joined them. As she always did, she retreated to the fourth floor of the main building, the unused 'attic,' and began to work on her assignments for the classes she had just completed. She preferred to keep her two lives as separate as possible, which meant not mixing homework. She did not like to be reminded in the daylight that in just a few short hours, she must slip out to her car and set out for Cross Academy once more. Thinking of such things during the day distracted her from living her human life; the only real life that she had.

Reina was not lonely. She had plenty of friends and family around her in the sunlit world of her own town, and she was perfectly happy there. Sometimes she wondered how it would have been if she could have gone on being like that, blissfully ignorant of what she really was, of the shadowy blood that swarmed within her veins. Even now that she knew of her own dual nature, she still often questioned whether she couldn't just ignore it and go on living as a human full-time. The few people that knew would keep her secret, and nobody else needed to be aware. End of complications. Albeit, there were some parts of being a half-blood that Reina had honestly grown too attached to to give up; the incredible strength, the daunting speed, the razor-sharp senses, and most of all, the ability to run up walls and leap insane distances without injury. And she wouldn't be forced to give it up entirely- a little moonlight run through the gorges now and then, ricocheting off the canyon walls and skimming over the clifftops- that would be enough to keep her happy. As long as she was wearing her homemade ninja mask, nobody would know. Reina felt sure that she could keep the secret 24/7, if it meant getting her old, vampire-free life back. She was very adept at keeping her claws and fangs retracted, and as for her body's near-invulnerability, well- she would just have to make sure that she never stumbled into a situation where she ought to be injured, but wouldn't be. It was absurd and unfair for Headmaster Cross to suggest that her transition was the beginning of a brand-new life, and that she must embrace it by starting at school here. She had no desire to embrace any brand-new life. She had been more than satisfied with her old one. Even if the headmaster had helped her in the past….

Reina sighed, and tucked her completed theory back into her pristine white bag. The room which she had taken over was small and cluttered with miscellaneous items, of no use to the school anymore. It was lit up with the warm glow of the candles she had brought up and perched on the desk at which she sat every night, dividing her nights and days with a determined hand. Reina liked the benign, insular feel of the room. She liked the fact that it was hers alone. She seemed to live at Cross Academy in the rooms and spaces that others considered not fit to occupy. Reina smiled a harsh grimace as she stood up and prepared to return to the crowds below. How suited, and yet how strange for one such as her.

"What am I doing here?" she said to the wall, on which she had pinned an old, faded calendar. One by one, in dark black ink, she had progressively marked off the nights which she'd spent here with sharp pen scratches, as if slashing them out of her memory. Four months, seventeen days. Now eighteen. Reina felt a flutter of unease as she attacked the day's date with her pen. What was she counting the days down _to?_ When was this all going to end?

The dark-haired girl persevered through an hour of Ethics class in the school building next door, followed by another hour of Literacy Studies. At 4:10 am, the classes were dismissed for the night, and Reina made her way artfully through the muttering crowds of vampire students slowly drifting down the halls. Some would go back to their dormitory now, others would stay for awhile. The campus was theirs for several more hours. The sun rose at 6:30; the day class students came out at 7:00. By then, the night class would have cleared out and been well on their way back to bed. As for Reina, she was going to see the headmaster, and then she was going home.

She spotted Kaname Kuran and his followers at the bottom of the staircase, and quickly changed her course, ducking through the doors of a second-story balcony. Quickly scanning the area for sneaking day class students, Reina stepped casually off the ledge and fell to the ground, landing gracefully in a grove of trees. She began to run again, skimming over the grass and bushes. Even though it was nearly four years since her transition, sometimes she still felt startled at the lack of noise that her feet made against the ground.

Headmaster Kaien Cross was busily roasting a tilapia fish over a miniature grill in his office when Reina knocked and let herself in. For a moment, she stared quite vividly at the scene in front of her. Honestly, how this man had ever gotten to be an academy chairman…. When he saw who it was, Headmaster Cross straightened up and called out cheerfully, "Reina, come in, come in! I've got a fish for you too!"

Reina had always been rather of two minds when it came to Kaien Cross. There was one part of her that admired his vision and supported his pacifism. And yet, there was another part which tended to be generally appalled at the man's propensity for ridiculousness. That part was definitely winning as she closed the door and crossed the length of the office in tentative steps. The blonde, bespectacled man held out another speared fish to her, but she did not take it. Instead, she set her bookbag down on his desk and began to carefully unload the culinary contents. Kaien Cross left his roasting stick hanging over the coals as he scuttled over to admire the lot.

"Ah-ha, this is good! Very good! Now I can make chopped duck soup for today's breakfast!" he rejoiced, inspecting the labels of the spices. After another moment of distraction, he inquired, "So how were your classes tonight?"

"All right." Reina replied, which was the truth. Nothing particularly good had happened, and nothing particularly bad had happened. Like always.

Kaien Cross was not placated. He raised his eyebrow, and seemed to forget that he had been the one setting up a roasting pit in the middle of his office, and was therefore not really in a good position to make serious comments. "How long do you intend to keep this up, Reina?" he questioned bluntly.

The dark-haired girl hurriedly extended her senses around the office to make sure that no one was listening. When she was satisfied, she shrugged and moved to sit down in the headmaster's chair. "I'm attending the academy. I'm doing as you requested. I'll keep it up until we both agree that there is no benefit in my being here."

"But I wanted you to attend the academy as yourself, Reina." The man protested, leaning against the window frame. "Not to make up some story about you being a common vampire so that you could go unnoticed."

"That was my condition; that you would keep my secret. I don't want them to know me for what I am. It would only complicate things."

Headmaster Cross sighed, brushing a strand of hair out of his face. "Try to understand the world from their point of view. These young vampires have been raised their whole lives to revere the night world's hierarchy. But I know they would accept you if they only knew-"

"I have no interest in being a part of that hierarchy. Not even the highest part." Reina replied, shifting to stare out the window as she watched several white-uniformed students flit by. "A cage is still a cage, no matter how gilded."

"No one could make you do anything you don't want to, Reina." The headmaster commented softly. "That's one of the benefits of being the most powerful vampire of vampires- along with purebloods, of course. And if such people were to try to coerce you into agreements with them, I think they would find out quickly just how strong-willed you are…."

The mention of purebloods brought a sharp frown to Reina's face. She stared even harder into the night, where she could see a solitary, elegant figure walking along beside the pond. "Kaname Kuran," she muttered under her breath.

"Huh? What about Kaname-kun? Speaking of him, I know he'd be happy to have an equal here with him at the academy….someone to understand him….I think he gets lonely…."

Reina brushed aside the headmaster's ramblings. She narrowed her eyes at the distant figure. "I think he knows."

"Knows….? About what? About _you?_ But that's not possible, I haven't said anything, I swear!" The headmaster flailed around in confusion, pressing his face against the glass and also staring out toward Kaname. _He's going to see you, you fool,_ thought Reina. She wondered if she ought to tell him that his fish was burning.

"Well, maybe he doesn't _know _exactly, but I think he suspects. I can just feel it when he talks to me, and even when he doesn't talk to me. I'm so sure of it, and it's making me uneasy. By the way, your fish..."

The headmaster dove to save his tilapia, and Reina reached over and pulled the blind across the window. When she turned around again, the man was blowing on his fingers furiously, waving a scorched, speared fish around above his head. Without her permission, Reina's mouth curved up in a smile. Despite the fact that he was a ridiculous human and an ex-vampire hunter, and she was a reluctant, secret half-blood, she and Kaien Cross had been allies since that time four years ago. The older man could always make her feel better, whether he intended to or not. He had an open, affable personality, and even after hearing him admit to it, Reina still found it hard to believe sometimes that he had ever been a vampire hunter.

"Well," Kaien Cross was saying, fanning the coals with a random paper fan, "I don't know where Kaname-kun would have gotten that idea from, but as long as it's only a suspicion, he'll probably keep it to himself. He's a perfect gentleman, you know, so your secret is safe. However, I really do think you ought to consider revealing yourself on your own terms, Reina. It would be best for you and everyone else. After all, it's only because of your sacrifice that we're even able to have a night class in the first place. The other students would definitely look up to you."

Reina said nothing.

"The night world is a part of you." The headmaster declared, standing up and beginning to gather the spices in his arms. Reina turned away, eyes flashing red, feeling the claws that lay beneath her skin and fangs that hid in sheaths at the edge of her palate; feeling the incredible strength, the enormous vitality of her body, the power, the blood….none of which was _her._ She sighed, and touched her collarbone softly.

"Not really…."

Reina helped him carry the spices back to his living quarters. The air was still and silent there, given that his two adopted children were out performing their duties as guardians. She wondered vaguely when these people slept. As they loaded the spices into the cupboard, the headmaster enthusiastically asked her to stay for breakfast with his family in an hour; it was 5:00 now. She pondered the offer, but ultimately turned it down. His children….well, Yuki she didn't mind. The younger girl was more than a bit clueless, but she was friendly and likeable enough, like her adopted father. But to sit there across the table from Zero, who would no doubt spend the entire meal glaring at her, letting her know with his eyes that she was not welcome….well, Reina had better things to do than deal with him. But thinking of Zero, that reminded her….

As Reina picked up her bookbag to leave, she turned halfway back toward the headmaster and intoned quietly, "By the way, Zero's presence has been feeling a bit strange to me lately."

Humans were never as skilled at concealing their emotions as vampires were. The fingers on Kaien Cross's left hand betrayed him in a kind of twitch- just a subtle movement- that Reina wouldn't have even noticed without her inhumanly sharp eyesight. After a moment, he asked, "Oh, I see. Has it?"

Their eyes met. Reina nodded, the red bow in her hair dipping up and down."Yes," she answered lowly. "It has."

Footsteps on the stairs below them prompted Kaien Cross to change the subject. "That time is almost here again," he commented, glancing out the window. "Are you ready?"

She nodded. "I'll see you after the weekend."

"Have a good one." He waved, somehow still managing to give her a carefree smile. "Thanks for the spices! I'll definitely make you something good to eat next week!"

Reina bit back a smile as she left, despite everything. Really, that man….

She encountered Yuki Cross and Zero Kiryu on the landing on her way down. The smaller girl started upon seeing her and then bowed politely. "Good morning, Reina-san!"

Reina bowed in return. "Good morning, guardians. Your father is making chopped duck soup for you. Homemade, apparently."

Yuki smiled, seeming contented. Zero grunted and continued on up the stairs, Yuki jogging after him belatedly. Reina watched him go, the contour of his back, the rippling of his body. There was something there, without a doubt. This was not merely the aura of someone born into a vampire hunter family. Something had changed, deepened, contorted….and the headmaster knew, but she was willing to bet that Yuki did not….

It probably wasn't any of her business, Reina thought as she skimmed across the lawn in the dark. Just another strange facet of this very weird place. But still, it was curious…. The half-blood girl reached her car, scooped up her clothes, and retreated back into the abandoned building. She changed back into the red dress swiftly, tucking the white uniform away in her bag. No one in her hometown could be allowed to see her in this; no one but her family could know that she attended Cross Academy by night. It would lead to too many questions.

Reina climbed into her red car and immediately felt dipped in sunshine, even though it was still dark. She felt the freewheeling spirit which she suppressed every evening in order to become invisible rise up in her again. She was on her way home, and she had art club to look forward to after school today. She unwound her bun and let her shining hair fall all around her shoulders and back. Kicking off her shoes, she put her stocking foot to the pedal and stepped on the gas. She popped one of her indie bands into her CD changer to complete her mood as she sped up the road. She did not even notice Kaname Kuran, still sitting by the pond, gazing at her with an unfathomable expression as she swept past him and left the academy behind. The pureblood lord watched her car until it disappeared from sight.

"You're lucky." He murmured, so softly that he could hardly be heard, before standing up and making his way slowly back to the moon dorm.

By the time that Reina pulled into the familiar driveway of her home, greeted her father, mother, and sister, and collapsed on her bed to look over her already-completed homework from the day before, the night was done. The sun had risen, spreading its warming beams all throughout the land. It was time to be human again.

/

When she worked with paint, Reina forgot everything. Everything around her disappeared, and all that she knew about herself was somehow diluted. She was neither human nor vampire. She was not even Reina anymore. She existed in the paint, the colors and lines, bold and soft, bright and dark. Maybe that was part of the attraction, the clean slate that painting gave her every time. Whatever the reason, she had picked up a paintbrush at the age of nine, and had just kept going strong since then. She knew she was good. She did not need people to tell her, though she felt gratified when they did. She just knew, deep down inside of herself. She had been born meant to paint.

Even better, she was not the only one. As Reina had moved through middle school and into her freshman and sophomore years of high school, she had amassed around herself a group of like-minded artistic friends, all gifted in one way or another. Or perhaps they had amassed her around them. Nobody was really sure anymore how they had all come together. Nevertheless, they were known as the 'artsy group' at her public high school, even though their membership was based on goodwill alone and was therefore nothing like a clique. They were just ordinary kids with talent. And on that base, they had formed the Art Club almost immediately after starting high school.

Reina was the vice-president. Her duties included taking meeting notes, emailing event reminders, and filling in for Asuki when she was not there. Asuki, who was a highly charged only child with an organizing bent, was naturally the president. She coordinated all of the club's activities. Reina and Asuki worked in close synchrony, which was made easier by the fact that they were best friends. Everyone said that they were two of a kind. Even though she knew that they were not aware of everything, Reina still agreed.

Today was an unusual project. Today they were setting up for the annual school-wide art show.

Reina had her own smaller group of close friends within this sea of acquaintances. There was Asuki, of course; then there was Saori, Asuki's next-door neighbor, Kimiko, who aspired to be a makeup artist, and Tren, who was a boy, but who somehow still fit in with the rest of them as naturally as breathing. They were not stereotypical artist kids. They were strong-bodied, adaptive, and clever. They devoted hours and hours of work and contemplation to their artistic mediums, but they also knew how to fix cars and pick locks and skim money off their purchases at stores. Tren liked to joke that they were world-savvy, and therefore completely prepared for futures as starving artists, poor, but glorious. And now they were sitting on tables and setting up easels in the empty student commons, carefully hauling out paintings and sculptures and pots, debating the benefits of certain light angles for the featured works. Kimiko was mounting photos of some of her more zany makeup jobs on the far wall. Saori was arranging her braided pots in a windowless corner, where the sunlight wouldn't fade them. Tren was studying his latest drawings; Asuki was standing in the middle of the room, directing everything in a clear, efficient manner. Reina was sitting on a tabletop with her paintings all around her, staring off into space.

In times like these, Reina often felt like her vampire nature, Kaien Cross, the night class, everything must be merely a dream. It seemed absurd to be sitting here in the late afternoon sunlight, surrounded by a happy crowd of perfectly human teenagers, yet knowing deep inside that this was only one side of her life. It was like having a kind of awareness floating above that of everyone else's. At school here, everyone supposed that she was a regular human like them, and that she spent her nights sweetly tucked into her bed (or up late cramming for exams.) At Cross Academy, everyone thought that she was a vampire, like them, and that she spent her days asleep in some….place. The details had been left purposefully vague when the headmaster had issued a statement upon her enrollment, informing everyone that she had his special permission to live outside of the academy due to certain 'circumstances.' No one had ever bothered to ask, so Reina had never been troubled to invent what these circumstances might be. Still, the dichotomy was mind-boggling. It was a good thing that she had other people- her family on the light side, and Kaien Cross on the dark- that were in on the secret of her dual nature. It would have been far too much of a headache to try to keep up the façade around everyone, all the time.

Still, it was in times like these, moments which seemed so secure and utterly normal, that Reina thought, _I am going to wake up. I am going to wake up, and I will be 13 again, and all of this will just have been some weird dream. Vampires won't exist, of course they won't….I will have dreamed all of them up. Kaname Kuran and his followers, Kaien Cross and his children, all of them, unreal, a funny story to tell my friends over lunch the next day…. _But no matter how many times she thought this, Reina still felt the claws and fangs sheathed out of sight, sensed the latent strength and speed running through her body. She was acutely aware that if she wanted to, she could run right up that wall, or smash through it, and there was nothing normal about that.

And anyway, when she got into her car to go home every day, there was always that bag with the white uniform inside: the hard, solid evidence.

**...Hopefully Kaien Cross was in-character. :3**

**Tune in next time for coolness! **


	3. Bloodletting

**Author's Note:**

**A sphygmomanometer is a blood pressure monitor. You know, those things with the Velcro that they wrap around your upper arm and then tighten? The ones in doctors' offices? Those things. **

There were no classes for her on Sunday night, like there were for the rest of the night class students. As long as she had to attend the mysterious and elite Cross Academy anyway, Reina thought that she had managed to arrange her schedule quite well. Sunday night and Thursday night were her two main homework nights for her normal school- Sunday for finishing up the homework assigned over the weekend, and Thursday for putting together the homework that had built up over the week. She took those two nights off to make sure that she could stay on top of her studies. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday she would spend both days and nights in class- what she referred to internally as her mid-week hell period. Night class students did not have school on Friday nights, thank goodness. She flat-out refused to spend her Friday nights in that place. As it was, school was not the reason why she was walking the halls of the main building of the Academy at 11:30 on this late Sunday night. She was waiting for the midnight hour.

Sighing as ennui threatened to overtake her, Reina decided to go upstairs and wait in the Headmaster's guest sitting room. There were books up there. The respectable hallways were extremely silent as the brown-haired girl glided softly across them, humming in-key to herself. There were no classes held in this building, day or night; its purposes were primarily administrative. There should not be any vampires wandering hereabout. Yet even so….Reina turned suddenly toward the window as the flicker of a night-owl's wing drew in her senses. There was something vague in the air, something telling which would not tell her because she had not moved close enough to it. Something odd was dogging her senses as she moved up the stairs. Reina had known this uneasy feeling in the past, but it had always been in regards to herself. Now, it was something external….and nearby…. A vampire? Perhaps…. It wasn't as though the Academy had never had security breaches in the past. This was what the role of the Guardians had been designed to prevent.

Reina pushed open the door of the sitting room and immediately spotted one of those very same guardians, sitting at a table with his back turned to her. His gray hair spilled shaggily down the sides of his head, masking piercings on his ears and a very large, ornate tattoo on his neck. He was gripping a book in one hand, while the other was pressed tightly over his mouth, long fingers splaying out messily toward his eyes and across his cheeks. He turned instantly around when she opened the door, seeming about to blurt something out- but then he gauged her identity and fell abruptly back into stony silence, glaring. Reina decided to ignore this less than civil welcome as she coasted over to the bookshelves with her head held high, fingering the volumes along their spines in indecision. She wanted Zero to know that nothing he did was going to drive her out of a place in which she had every right to be. Her family was paying for this Academy, after all- half-price, yes, but still paying good money.

"What are you doing here?"

Reina was surprised at how hoarse his voice sounded. She contemplated this for a moment before replying with determined casualness, "Waiting for the Headmaster."

"So am I," the black-clad boy declared, eyeing her as if to say that whatever business she had with Kaien Cross could perfectly well wait.

"Are you? Well then, if you don't mind, I will wait for him here as well." The brown-haired girl dropped down into a swaybacked armchair and focused her eyes on her chosen book, pursing her lips together as Zero tensed. It was entirely obvious that he really did mind her presence in the room, but Reina ignored him with every ounce of diplomacy that she possessed. What was harder to ignore was the accumulating feeling of a sinister presence somewhere nearby, something wild and heaving and _red…._ Reina stared down at her book, and Zero at his, but the young girl could potently sense that neither of them was actually reading. As she thought about it more, she began to wonder increasingly about Zero's lack of response. Surely he could sense it too, being a member of the primary vampire-hunting clan of the world. Why was he not reacting? Why was he sitting inside, waiting to see the Headmaster, instead of hunting down the malicious presence like his duties required? Reina bit her lip and stole a glance over at the grey-haired boy every now and again, whose grip on both his book and the tableside was steadily tightening. What on earth was he _doing?_

Finally, able to stand the sensory pressure no longer, Reina stood up with a loud bang and swept over to the window as her book thudded across the coffee table's surface. She wrenched it open and craned her head out into the night, closing her eyes and trying to get a sense of the location of the presence. It gave her no directions, but it was close, she was certain….it was close.

"What?" Zero had jerked his body up in alarm, and was watching her with narrowed eyes as she scanned the treeline. She gave him an exasperated backward glance.

"Don't tell me you don't sense it too. I won't believe you. There's a malevolent presence out there," she declared, fanning her hand out toward the sky. "It's….hungr-"

All of a sudden, Zero's hand jolted out of thin air and slammed the window down. His angry eyes confronted her as if she had committed some sort of personal offense against him. He glared, and then turned his head to the side as she met his gaze with an unflappable, blank face. "Of course I can sense it; it's being taken care of." He told her harshly, standing his ground in between her and the window. "It's none of your concern. The security of the Academy is the job of the Guardians and the Headmaster. We don't need students getting themselves involved and complicating matters."

This surprised Reina- well, the information did. His attitude was the same as ever. Who exactly was taking care of it, she wondered, if Zero was here and the Headmaster was on his way? She could not imagine either of them sending little Yuki out alone to face some threat while they sat inside. It was on the tip of Reina's tongue to tell him _That doesn't seem like you- not pursuing the intruder?_ She only stopped because she knew that in reality, she was barred from awareness of any of the actual inner workings of Zero's mind, and he from hers. They were enigmas to each other by choice. She brushed past the fabric of his coat and silently re-took her seat in the armchair, picking up her book again even as she heard the midnight bell begin to toll. She might as well let sleeping dogs lie, if he was going to make such a fuss about it. By the time the sun rose on Monday morning, she was going to have more than enough problems of her own.

Zero remained standing, staring silently out the window, very still. A ruckus in the hallway outside alerted them both that the Headmaster was on his way. Despite knowing what was coming, Reina was honestly relieved when he swung his way under the doorframe, breaking the tense atmosphere apart like a child popping a balloon. "Reina! Zero!" he exclaimed affably, giving them both an energetic wave. "Nice to see you two! How was the weeke-"

"I need to speak with you." Zero declared, standing up before she could say anything and practically dragging his adopted guardian out of the room by his arm. Kaien Cross signaled to Reina that he would return shortly. Before they disappeared behind the soundproof oaken doors of the Headmaster's office, she clearly heard Zero snap "Why is that night class student always coming to see you?"

"Now, now, Zero…." The Headmaster returned placatingly. Then there was silence.

The moment the doors closed, Reina rose up and glided back over to the window, throwing the pane up and leaning out into the night once more. Zero Kiryu sure had looked anxious, she thought as she tried once again to pinpoint the source of the malevolent aura. Was the reason that he needed to speak to the Headmaster something to do with it? She knew that it wasn't any of her business, really, but what was it?

Perhaps twenty minutes later, Kaien Cross leaned his blonde head into the sitting room, and Reina abandoned her book and followed him down the hall. "Kiryu is gone. We can proceed." He informed her, glancing around as they began to descend the steps.

The brown-haired girl nodded, fanning her senses out through the building just to make sure. Something was still very wrong. "There's something here. I can sense a malignant presence, and it's very close."

The long-haired man closed his eyes for a fraction of a second. "I know all about it; so please don't worry. Kiryu and I are taking care of it." He said in a slightly more serious voice. Reina felt a bit surprised at this as well. There wasn't a lot that Kaien Cross didn't tell her about the goings-on at the Academy, but he obviously did not want to talk about this. She did not press him because she felt that doing such a thing would be a bit hypocritical- she herself was a naturally reticent person, after all. Still, to be taking care of something like this in such a mysterious manner….

"Don't worry, it won't interfere with our task tonight." The Headmaster told her brightly, offering the startled girl a muffin out of seemingly nowhere. "Have you eaten enough food this evening?"

"I have- yes." She assured him, eyeing the muffin dubiously. The pair of them had reached the lowest public level of the main building. The Headmaster left his muffin sitting on the bottom stairway railing, and unlocked the last door in the hallway. Reina stepped through into a familiar storage closet, large enough to hold all of the odds and ends, knicks and knacks which the Headmaster firmly believed the Academy would one day have a use for. There was a puppet stage, a flock of green plastic exercise balls, a dark red motorcycle, tennis rackets, unused filing cabinets, a giant stuffed carrot which definitely had not been in here last time….

Reina blinked at the carrot while Kaien Cross peered around the hallway outside, then softly closed and locked the door. Deciding that she did not want to ask, the young girl rolled her eyes and followed him to far back whitewashed wall of the closet. He took a thin pass card out of his wide coat pocket, and murmured down to Reina, "Are we alone?"

The half-vampire obligingly spread her senses out through the building once again, searching for the tint of sentient life….that presence was still there, but it seemed further away somehow. Not close enough to have seen them go in here, at any rate. She nodded and stepped to the side of the wall.

"We are." Kaien Cross smiled and slipped the card into an unobtrusive-looking crack in the wall, and the room's glaring lights immediately went out. In another moment, a tiny sliver of light appeared on the wall, which lengthened into a line, then became two, then three…. The yellow lines came together to form a rectangle, which was promptly filled in with light as the doorway, hidden in the wall, slid soundlessly away to reveal a stone passage which descended downwards in a slant. Kaien Cross placed his hand against the entrance.

"It's time," he said in a voice which was neither excited nor afraid. Trying to mimic his placid attitude, Reina followed him down the dimly-lit stairway, taking one last dubious look at the carrot as the door behind them slid closed again.

"Do anything exciting this weekend, Reina?"

"We're preparing for the art show at my school. It's going to be in the middle of this coming week. I'm exhibiting some of my nature paintings." Reina answered, unable to completely keep the manic glint out of her eyes when talking about her paintings. The Headmaster smiled.

"You're a very skilled painter. I really enjoy that painting of the waterfall that you gave me to hang in my office. I show it off every time someone cultured sets foot in there!"

The young girl blushed, hidden by the dimness all around her. "Thank you, sir."

"No need for that, no need for that!" Kaien Cross protested, flailing his hands about in what Reina supposed was meant to be a gesture of denial. "Haven't we known each other as allies for four years now? Even though you're younger than me….but you know," he continued in an entirely different voice, "we have a painting club here at Cross Academy too. One for the day class and one for the night class, actually. Although we've never had an art show…."

"One painting club is more than enough for me." Reina declared, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible.

"But you could show them your skills!"

"I don't think so."

"But they don't know what they're missing!"

"Then they will never miss what they don't know they're missing," she stated firmly. The Headmaster sighed.

"Tonight being what it is, I won't press you," he declared with a conciliatory smile. Reina nodded, quietly grateful, as the pair of them drew up on a set of double doors at the bottom of the staircase. The doors were thick and pitch-pine black, and Reina could sense that they were inlaid with multiple types of vampire repellants. Beyond these doors, she would be beyond their reach. This thought filled her with comfort and the Headmaster unlocked the right door and held it open for Reina to walk inside.

The lights clicked on as they sensed her movement, and she found herself inside the familiar absolute bottom chamber of the main academy building. The walls were a pale mix of colors- gray, white, and earthy brown- and the floor was drab concrete. As far as she knew, no one but herself and Headmaster Cross had ever been inside this room. From the far side of the chamber came the gurgling sound of a circular fountain, sunken into the stone floor. It was not an ornate fountain. It bore no decoration. Water bubbled up from a stone slab in the center and spilled over into the circular basin which surrounded the headpiece. The glassy-green water had no beautiful light to reflect, only cheap fluorescents. It was really a shame. Reina's mind began to slip into mission mode as she walked further into the room, toward a plastic-padded cot with two moveable armrests attached to either side. She knew the drill. She lifted a short, white gown from the cot and ducked out of sight behind a foldable changing screen. While Headmaster Cross wiped down the cot and prepared the instruments, Reina tugged off her jeans and top and replaced them with the thin gown, which came down to her knees. At least it did not open at the back, like a hospital gown. Folding her clothes up, Reina walked back over to the Headmaster and laid them down upon a nearby table. Kaien Cross was in mission mode as well. The man efficiently helped her onto the cot and propped up the part which supported her back, so that she was in a sitting position. "All right, then," he murmured.

Reina relaxed upon the cot while the Headmaster puttered around with his instruments, making sure that everything was in working order. "Right arm?" he asked her, and Reina nodded. She laid her right arm upon the armrest and he adjusted it so that it was parallel to the rest of her body. Holding a tiny marker, Kaien Cross placed a blue stress ball into her palm and sat down in his chair, staring hard at her arm. "Squeeze," he ordered, and Reina did so. A pale blue vein surfaced under her skin in the soft place where her upper and lower arm was connected, and he quickly drew two lines on either side of it. Ripping open a packet, he swabbed this space with cold iodine and then wheeled down to her legs. This was slightly more difficult due to the fact that the spot which he needed to reach was on the underside of her legs, opposite her kneecaps. Reina lifted one leg up at a time, letting him mark the vein and swab the area. Then he wheeled back up to her arm. "Ready?" he asked, and Reina nodded, feeling that fearful-patient mentality creep into her mind, even though she had done this a million times before. It always made her feel meeker than she really was. Kaien Cross knew that she preferred not to talk during this time. He removed an empty, clear bag from his case, which was connected to a long tube. He hung the bag on a hook connected to the cot's edge, and placed the tube safely beside her body. A chart which hung next to her head was removed, and two fingers were placed on her wrist. For several moments, the room was silent as he felt the tap of her pulse against her skin. Then he took out his sphygmomanometer and attached the Velcro cuff around her upper arm. Watching the dial face, he squeezed the valve and inflated the cuff around her arm, placing the head of his stethoscope over the black markings on the crook of her arm. He gradually decreased the pressure, and scribbled on his chart. Hanging it back up, he taped the end portion of the tube to her wrist with clear medical tape, and pulled the plastic covering off the needle. Reina watched him work with languid eyes. Before he poked the needle in between the markings, the man looked at her for a moment, and Reina couldn't gauge what was behind his own eyes….sorrow, or apology, or hope. Maybe all three.

She felt a brief pain which dimmed after a moment, and the tube filled up with red. The Headmaster tore off a piece of gauze and draped it over the place where the needle entered her vein- he always followed professional procedure, even though it did not bother Reina to see the needle stuck in her skin. She had lifted off the gauze and taken a peek one time, and it was nothing to go into convulsions over. The Headmaster attached a little device which looked like a step-counter onto the slowly filling bag, which would tell him how fast her blood was flowing. He then proceeded to remove the prop and lay her down flat, adjusting the armrest accordingly, before circling her body and repeating the procedure on her left leg, sans stethoscope and blood pressure monitor. Reina laid her head back down as she felt the second sting. She was on her way to losing approximately half of the eight or nine pints of blood in her body, as she did every month. For a human, losing this much blood at once would kill them. For Reina, it would make her woozy and tired for a few days, nothing serious enough to stop her from going to school. Her body could replenish itself almost automatically. The only time when she felt real shock was when the blood was actually being drained out of her. She was getting to that point now. It was safest for her to be unconscious during most of this procedure, as she tended to hallucinate severely while the blood loss intensified, but they had to wait until the last minute to anesthetize her so that the chemicals in the anesthesia would not have time to absorb into her bloodstream and mix with the de-coagulant in the bags which collected her blood. If that happened, it would corrupt the whole batch and this all would have been worthless. It was a fine, carefully timed dance of biology which she and the Headmaster were engaging in. He was back now, peering into her face, and Reina gave him a weak smile as the ceiling burst into rainbow colors. At least it was less dreary this way, she thought vaguely. Soon….

Reina lifted her head to peer down at her legs. After he had drained the required blood from her left leg and right arm, he would move on to her right leg. Reina would be unconscious at this point. She heard the gurgling of the fountain, which was filled with a special chemical that would speed up the healing of her vampire body. Kaien Cross would carry her over to the water once she was detached from all this equipment. He would let her sink down to the bottom while he kept vigil over her. One of the things about this body which always frightened her was the fact that she did not need air to live. She turned her head toward the fountain and saw that it was filled with blood.

"Headmaster, now," she spoke into the cavernous room, and Kaien Cross nodded. He vanished from her view and returned a moment later with a partial mask in his hand. The purple mask was also attached to a tube. His face was stretching, his features were spreading out like a smudged painting that had not yet dried. He carefully adjusted some dials on the machine to which the tube was connected, and Reina drew one last breath of real air before he laid the mask carefully against her face. As a vampire, Reina was naturally immune to most chemicals designed to affect humans, but as a human, she could lower this resistance if she needed to. It was some damn psychotropic ability which she did not fully understand.

"Wait," the Headmaster instructed gently, and pressed a button that kept changing colors to Reina's eyes. "Now." She breathed in, breathed again, breathed in again, and the room melted in colors. Before she floated away on the taffy-tasting, cloud-like colors, Reina took one last look at her arm where the needle was. It lay still, spattered in rosy blood.

**Well! Hopefully that didn't freak anyone out.**

**My rendering of this scene is loosely based off of the many times I've donated blood to the Red Cross. Experience-wise, it's pretty accurate, even though I know it isn't medically accurate because Reina is a half-vampire. And no, the Red Cross doesn't knock you out when you donate blood. XD**

**Please press the magical button that says REVIEW! :D It will make me feel appreciated, and it will get you karma cookies. :3**


	4. Confrontation

**Author's Note:**

**This is (probably) the last chapter that I'm going to post before finals. :3**

**This chapter contains some Kaname-bashing. Before anyone gets mad at me, let me make it clear that I, the authoress, do not hate Kaname. However, _Reina_ definitely does hate Kaname. She made me write this! But really, I'm not trying to bash anyone's favorite character. Because we see this world exclusively through Reina's eyes, the people whom she doesn't like tend to be portrayed badly in her thoughts. But I promise I won't bash them forever. There's a point to all this. 3**

Reina knew that it was 5:30 am when she opened her eyes and beheld the wavering face of Kaien Cross looming above her through the water. His black-coated figure stretched and contorted, the arms becoming wider as he reached down and broke the surface with his hands. Carefully, he guided her body into a sitting position. Her shining head arched up out of the water as he deftly removed the plastic covering from her mouth and nose, which kept the water from coming in, and Reina tasted the air. It was stale, so far underground, devoid of sunlight and earth. Kaien Cross allowed her to lay there, half-in, half-out of the water, supported by his arms. Finally, the young girl turned her eyes down toward her inner elbow, eyeing the spot where the needle marking had been before. It was gone now, the skin fresh and clean. The hardest part was over.

"There, come on now, then, let's get you up…." The Headmaster was talking more to himself than to her as he tucked one of his arms underneath her floating legs and lifted her whole body out of the fountain with a splash. Reina's head lolled back, and she vaguely observed the room upside-down as Kaien Cross, now dripping wet himself, sloshed out of the fountain and made for the large doors. There was nothing to stay down here for- no heat, no blankets, no food to help her recover. They never lingered in the underground chamber after her initial healing hours in the fountain had passed. Before the doors closed and locked behind them, Reina caught a glimpse of the clear bags of her blood which lay upon the metal table, spread out like festering pustules.

It was difficult for Kaien Cross to carry her up the stairs, for he had to move sideways in order for her body to fit through the narrow passage. Even so, Reina was not worried about being dropped. The man was stronger than his constant silly antics made him seem. They went back through the secret doorway; then up the stairs tentatively, for classes had already ended, and Reina was too tired to use her senses to scan for night class students wandering around the main building. Like before, they made it into the Headmaster's private quarters undetected, and he took her directly to the guest bedroom. This was the room which Reina liked- which she associated mentally with warm blankets and good food and coming back to herself. The Headmaster managed to kick the dark blue blankets off the bed smoothly, then, not caring that she was still rather wet, he laid her down upon the mattress and replaced the layers of comforters. "Feeling better?"

Reina's response was a vague nod and a long, drawn-out groan.

"But of course, when you need is some of my homemade breakfast!" the blonde man exclaimed, bespectacled eyes glinting. His cheerfulness was returning with alarming rapidity. "This morning, it's woven breads and steamed rice and fruit salad and _tea!_ So just relax right here, and I'll have you feeling well again in no time!" He lifted her head, plumped her pillow, and in another moment had zoomed out of the room with great enthusiasm, calling out "Ring the bell if you need anything!" behind him.

Reina closed her eyes and let her head fall back into the pillow. Her body felt so weak and chilled and brittle, a feeling she was decidedly unaccustomed to. And yet, inside of her mind, she was immersed in a definite sense of satisfaction. Another successful blood donation. Another whole month in between now and the next one. Right now, the young girl could definitely feel the absence of the blood she had lost- more than half of the blood in her poor, weak body. However, she knew from experience that in a few hours, with the influx of food and water and rest, she would be fit to drive off to school and start another week. In a day or two, she would be completely restored. And in Kaien Cross's lab, another batch of selected chemicals would be combined with her blood and emerge as blood tablets, little soldiers ready to march off and be devoured in the name of peace. The peace between humans and vampires, always a noble ideal, now brought into fledgling reality on account of the invention of those tablets….and the blood, her blood which sustained them….reaching for that ideal….

Reina fell into a drained sleep, her head molding itself into the pillow, her drying hair draped around her neck like shining cords. It was odd, but as she slept, she dreamed that she opened her eyes and saw Zero Kiryu leaning against the doorframe of her room. Something was wrong with him. He was panting, heaving, clutching at the side of his neck with the ornate tattoo upon it. His eyes were wide and horrified. He staggered toward the bed, reaching out for the hem of the covers, then cried out and fell back against the wall when he saw that there was already someone under them. Reina watched him impassively as he tried to gather himself. "What the hell are you doing here _again?"_ he hissed, biting his lip until it bled. "What- what's wrong with you?"

"I'm only tired," Reina told him, sighing as she re-immersed herself in the dark comforter's folds. "What's wrong with _you?"_ Too content with sleeping to watch him anymore, she closed her eyes and never heard him leave. In the back of her mind, a tiny idea came into being, reaching out its tendrils for energy to help it grow. But Reina had no energy to give it, and so it withered while she slept. When the half-blood girl awakened next, it was as if it had never existed at all.

The potent aroma of food wafted into the room with Kaien Cross, immediately waking Reina up. With a flourish, the man pulled the lid off of a tray of assorted foods, dazzling in their color and variety. She was almost never hungry, but she was certainly hungry right then. Reina was able to sit up on her own, and she began to eat enthusiastically as the Headmaster watched, beaming. His cooking could not exactly be called traditional, but it couldn't be called bad, either. He hung around by Reina's side for a while, making conversation, before standing up to return to his duties in the public office. The young girl did not resent his not staying with her- she knew that it was a struggle for him to take one school night a month off in order to remain underground while the bloodletting process was going on. Despite his carefree and cheerful demeanor, she knew that Kaien Cross actually did work very hard to pursue his dream of harmony between humans and vampires.

"I'll be in my office if you need anything," he told her, waving as he placed her normal clothes in a folded pile at the foot of the bed. "Otherwise, feel free to head out when you think you've reached a stable condition again. And once more, thank you, Reina. None of this would be possible without you. Remember that- you are integral to this world. You have a place in it that has nothing to do with your social status, real or pretended."

Left with these prophetic words of wisdom, Reina continued to dish the steamed rice from the lily-shaped bowl into her mouth, thinking of nothing. It was odd, but after that initial destabilized rebellion of the body, losing blood always made her calm and placated. She did not have the energy within her to waste on being antagonized, so until she recovered, she would simply float along, observing things but not reacting. It was going to be a very mellow school day for her.

Speaking of school….Reina rolled halfway over to peer at the clock on the bedside table. 6:45 am….she had better get going. She had brought her backpack and schoolbooks along in her car, just in case there wasn't time to stop at home before continuing on to her high school, but all the same….she should really go…. Still, Reina continued to lie in bed until she knew that she absolutely could not stay any longer. This was the only time that she had ever wanted to stay at Cross Academy, just like this….sleeping peacefully, with no prying eyes upon her. Finally, the last of the lackadaisical minutes milked down to nothing, Reina heaved herself out of bed, the white gown flapping loosely around her body. She closed the window's blinds and quickly changed into ordinary street clothes, a pair of jeans and a rosy red top. Tossing the white gown back on the bed like a fallen leaf, she checked to make sure that her keys were still stashed in her pocket. Satisfied, she crossed the room to the window, heaved it open, checked for that presence- nothing- and then leaped boldly to the grass below.

Her legs still had that shaky, new calf sort of feel to them, but her equilibrium was returning. She could walk without stumbling. Reina trilled softly inside at the thought of going home as she trotted across the dewy grass, headed for the abandoned guest building. The next moment, her trill turned into a low growl as she spotted part of the fence up ahead detach itself and begin to meander her way. It was Kaname Kuran, and amazingly, he seemed to be alone. Like Reina, he had changed out of his academy clothes, and he now wore a pair of black pants and a loose, dark shirt. He had the audacity to nod in greeting as he approached, as if they had planned to meet here. _Bastard,_ Reina thought placidly. She was still too weak to feel truly incensed. Hopefully her blood-loss-induced apathy would help her to just ignore him and carry on her way.

"Reina-san," Kaname addressed her politely as he drew up in front of her, "I was hoping to have a word with you, if you could oblige me?"

Reina glanced behind him toward her car, wondering what time it was now. "I need to be somewhere soon."

"It will be a very quick word, then," the pureblood lord insisted impeccably, moving a step closer to her. She looked into his eyes and knew that they were alone. "For a long time now, Reina-san, I think you've been aware that I….do not regard you as the others do."

In a way, Reina felt completely calm and almost relieved. So they were finally having this conversation. It was coming out into the open. The brown-haired girl said nothing, feeling the wetness along her scalp where the water had not yet dried. Kaname shifted his weight, and moved a step closer again. "I wanted to talk to you long before today. However, I wanted to be sure of my intuitions before I voiced my thoughts. Reina-san….I think you know what I mean."

"I do," she acknowledged, nodding curtly. "It doesn't change anything."

Kaname blinked. "Pardon me?"

Reina scowled fiercely. "If you tell the night class- or if you do any sort of sneaky, underhanded thing to make sure the night class finds out- then I'll leave the academy and never come back. In fact, I wish you _would _tell the night class, in that case. My time here has not been well-spent."

The pureblood was very still. "….I am not sure that I understand."

"What's not to understand?" Reina blustered impatiently. "It's very simple."

He stared at her deeply for another minute. "Reina-san, I have been aware of your existence for far longer than you have known of mine. However, having never met you personally, I know nothing about your personality or life experiences. I was highly confused when you first began to attend this school under these conditions….posing as a common vampire and shunning contact with everyone. Even after all these months, I still would not presume to say that I have truly 'met' you. Now that I have recently become aware of certain circumstances, as the president of the Moon Dormitory, I cannot ignore your presence here anymore. What is your purpose?"

Reina blinked as well, then narrowed her eyes. Kaname Kuran had known of her existence? She deftly tucked that piece of information into the back of her mind, to be investigated later. In the present time, she answered him flatly. "I have absolutely no purpose here whatsoever. Don't worry. I'm not here to steal any of the admiration from your giant flock of followers for myself. I just want to be left alone."

She was rewarded for her bluntness by seeing the pureblood's lips part slightly and his face stiffen. "Am I to assume, then," he asked softly, "that you have perpetrated this hoax willingly, and with every intention of continuing it?"

"Indeed I have."

"You are a half-blood, a queen of the night world, and yet you desire not to be recognized as such? You would rather be scorned as a mere common vampire among aristocrats?"Even through his calm outer demeanor, Reina could not miss the tone of incredulity which took hold in Kaname Kuran's voice. She flared the redness in her eyes and nodded.

"Reina-san," he repeated lowly, "I know that you have been raised by humans. I know that there is probably a great deal which you do not yet understand about the workings of the vampiric world. Even so, that power within you calls you to take your rightful place-"

"You don't know anything about me." Reina snarled, a depth of derision rising up in her voice which not even she had known herself capable of. "I don't care what information you've heard before. Do you imagine that I envy you, you pompous, pretentious bastard? Your royal status and inheritance, your flocks of supporters and admirers in the night class, all the screaming fangirls in the day class, your power, your prestige, your blood? Did you think that I came here to take my rightful place by your side, to be like _you?_ We are different beings!" Reina cut her hand violently into the space between them. "And even if I was a pureblood too, I'd still despise your lifestyle and hate your arrogance. I've seen the vampire world as it is ruled by you precious rarities, and let me tell you that I have never seen anything so foully unjust and distorted. I want no part in the world that you've made, and I don't intend to stay here any longer than I'm obliged to." Deciding that this was a good, hard-hitting way to end her rant, Reina turned away from the taller vampire and strode toward her car, a fiery kind of pleasure burning deep within her breast. How many times had she loathed the sight of Kaname Kuran flitting about the school with his flock of loyal supporters in tow, how many times had she wanted to march right up to him and shove her disdain right in his face? And now she was doing it, and she had no desire to lie to herself; it felt good, vindicating, cleansing. Today was going to be more exciting than she'd thought, after all. Right as she reached for the driver's side door, her path was blocked by the black-clad body of the Moon dorm president. Reina was planning on giving him a good clawed-hand slap if he grabbed her, but of course he didn't. He was such a stupid gentleman. His face was composed and very serious.

"Reina-san, please wait," he requested, moving to block her attempt to shove past him. "Reina-san, I fail to understand what I have done to warrant such dislike on your behalf. I have kept your secret. I have not been uncivil toward you, despite your unusual behavior. I have never asked anything of you-"

"And you never will. You were right; I'm not like the others. I'm not a brainwashed, level-obsessed aristocrat who's been raised to worship anyone with purer blood than themselves. I see you as you are, Kaname Kuran, and there's nothing venerable in what I see."

"Reina-san, I would never ask you to cater to me. We may be different beings, but we are equals." Kaname insisted, still firmly blocking her path to the car. The brown-haired girl laughed, a triumphant, harsh sound.

"That's right, as well. Whether anyone knows it or not, we are equals. So you'd better get used to me saying what I think and doing what I want, because I feel absolutely no obligation to please you or any other vampire. As we've already established, I don't care about you keeping my secret. And you think I'd care about the way you treat me?" Reina's voice rose in incredulity. "By all means, sell me out to the others! Spread rumors about me, or have your cronies do it for you- I doubt you like to get directly involved in the dirty work, hmmmm, pretty boy? Demand my expulsion for daring to offend you, if you want. It doesn't matter," she declared with a shake of her head, leaning forward to emphasize the last words. "I'm not some ignorant fangirl pining for a kind word or a gentle look from you. To use a very colloquial human expression, I hate your guts. Now get out of my way." Reina grabbed hold of his coat and dislodged the other vampire from the side of her car, pushing him backward as she popped the door and prepared to slide in.

"Wait, Reina-san," his voice called out from behind her, although she had absolutely no intention of waiting any longer. "Please listen."

"Kanaaaame-sama!" An utterly unrelated voice suddenly piped up a bit south of the car, causing both vampires to turn and look. Hanabusa Aidou was emerging from a clump of bushes, closely followed by Ruka Souen, Ichijo Takuma, and the rest of Kaname's group of most loyal supporters. Of course, they couldn't stand so much as half an hour without the presence of their precious lord. Reina was suddenly disgusted to no end. Fucking horrible. And she was _not _going to start her morning by running over a pack of vampires in a (probably futile) attempt to get to school on time. This was just too much. Turning away from their surprised faces, she swung herself fully into her car and slammed the door, wasting no time in firing up the engine and reversing toward the road. Despite her earlier show of boldness, she did not want to be present when her ultra-secret secret was finally revealed. She glanced up once, and noticed that Kaname Kuran bore a look of immense stress upon his aristocratic features as he glanced between his approaching followers and his retreating quarry. Then she pressed the pedal to the floor and rocketed past the lot of them, coming up out of the academy gates in a matter of moments, leaving the flawless night class to think what they wanted as she cleanly removed herself from their lives for what she was sure would be the final time.

**Reina thinks her ordeal is over...but is it? O.O**

**The story so far has been experimental. I'll keep updating after finals if people want to read more. **

**Good luck to all of you who also have finals to conquer! :)**


	5. Suspicion Confirmed

**Author's Note: **

**Thank you to my first two reviewers! :D You know who you are. You gave me encouragement to continue posting this story, so here's another chapter for you! :3**

Reina did not bother going to the Academy for the next two nights. She figured it was over. She slept those two nights away in her bed, peaceful, with gradually calming thoughts stirring around in her mind. It was over. It was over. She had tried her best (well, not really,) to be a normal night class student, but the Headmaster's experiment had ultimately failed. Perhaps it had always been doomed to fail, with someone like Kaname around. It surprised her that he had known from the beginning, but it explained a lot as well. That must have been why he always talked to her and treated her so courteously in the hallways. He had not thought her to be normal at all. He had not been kind. The nights blurred into mornings like the ones she had known in the past, before she had ever known there was anything different about her, and as Reina woke up to go to school in those mornings, she thought _I could get used to this again. No more night school. Just the day. _

That was before Headmaster Cross phoned her on the afternoon of the second day, wanting to know why she had been absent from school for two days without notification. She had never been absent before. "It isn't like you, Reina. Is something wrong?"

"Wrong?" she sputtered, immensely surprised that he did not already know. "What do you mean? I haven't been at school because I thought…. it was over. Kaname Kuran has found out my secret. Haven't you heard?"

"What? Kaname?" squawked the man in shock. "He's found out….? But how do you know? When did this happen?"

"After the night of the bloodletting. When I was headed home in the morning, he confronted me by my car." Reina related, growing more perplexed by the moment. "D'you mean to say that you haven't-"

"I haven't heard anything about it….from anyone. The campus is quiet, Reina."

"Oh." Was all she could say. Then, in a slightly hissed whisper; "But why? Why would he do that? What could he want?"

"If Kaname knew, he might have simply wanted to confirm his suspicions. He probably never intended to actually tell anyone. He's a gentleman-"

"He's a pureblood! Purebloods always have an agenda. What does he gain by keeping quiet?" the bruntette questioned, almost to herself. Over the line, she heard Kaien Cross clear his throat.

"Well, you know I cannot help you with speculation on this matter, so that aside- Reina, I think you know that if word had gotten out, there would not be so much an uproar as an explosion among the night class. I would have heard of it even if I had been hiding under a rock in the garden. However, as things are, the Academy is perfectly quiet and normal. Your secret is safe."

Reina said nothing. She was clutching the phone to her ear as though trying to press it into her skull.

"Therefore, will you come back to school?"

After a long pause, the young girl closed her eyes and sighed a sigh which sounded like a moan. "I suppose I shall have to, Headmaster. We did agree, after all."

"Excellent! Now, don't be so down-hearted. I can hear it in your voice. When you come back to campus, I'll make you that stew I was talking about, and we can have a good chat about this new development. And speaking of new developments, there's something I think you ought to know-" But Reina had stopped listening at the word 'chat.' Never opening her eyes, the half-blood girl turned the phone off and threw it down onto her bed, following it with her body moments later. She laid there until evening, but she did not enter into the sleep of untroubled dreams again.

/

Perhaps, Reina pondered as she drove slowly toward Cross Academy while the sun set, perhaps she'd been playing herself for a fool all along. Way deep down, past all her preferences and pretensions, she suspected that there was a part of her that really did want the Academy to know- that wanted everyone to know the truth about her. It was not because she wanted anything from them- not their admiration nor their fear, nor their groveling service- no. She had simply become aware over the course of these past few years that hiding oneself from the world was a difficult thing to undertake, especially when there was more than one illusion which must be maintained in certain times and places. She had told Kaname that she did not envy anything he had, and this was almost completely true. Still, she had lied a little. The one thing he possessed which she would take for herself was the ability to blatantly be who he was, for all to see. Though she may not like anything about him, at least she was able to see all there was about him. Kaname had been right when he'd confessed that despite the time they'd spent as classmates, he knew next to nothing about Reina. She had not allowed him to know anything. Only now he knew that she was a half-blood, and Reina was not sure what she was going to do when she reached the Academy and had to confront him.

It was not as though he had anything over her which he could use for coercion. She had already made it perfectly clear that it was no loss to her if the Academy found out her secret. She wouldn't be sad at all to leave it behind, as she knew she would. Still, it seemed very strange that Kaname had not taken her up on this challenge. She thought he had confronted her in the first place because he felt that she was a threat to his exclusive power in the night class. He knew that all he had to do was reveal her, and she'd be gone. Why not take her out and return to being the single level A in the school? Wasn't that what he would want, after all?

Or perhaps he had something even more under-handed in mind. Reina told herself that she would have to be especially careful as she traversed the hallways of Cross Academy from now on. The general night class population seemed to be in the dark, but she couldn't be sure that he hadn't confided _her secret_ to a few of his most loyal minions, so that they might help him to achieve whatever it was he wanted. She would have to beware of those faces as well.

Just thinking about all of this made Reina want to turn the car around and drive back home. Instead, the young girl steeled herself as she drove through the gates of the Academy, heading for her usual place beside the empty building. She climbed out of the car and faced the sky, the tall clock tower telling her that she had ten minutes to change and appear in class. For a moment, Reina imagined that a flock of late-night birds which burst suddenly out of a nearby tree were bloodthirsty vampires, moving to surround her, come to cut her open and take her blood away with them.

The first thing that Reina noticed upon entering her regular vampiric history classroom was that the staring lasted much longer than it usually did. It followed her into the room, up the aisle, and even to the back of the cavernous seating area, where Reina took her usual spot. This excess of attention made her paranoid. It could just be that she had been absent for two days, and they were wondering where she'd been (but of course they would never ask her, would never deign to be seen speaking with a common vampire.) However, Reina could not help but worry as she turned her gaze way from them. Did they know something? Furthermore, the brown-haired girl noticed that the most intent stares in the class were those from the exclusive group around Kaname Kuran. Just as she had feared.

In fact, Kaname was the only one of them who did not stare at her excessively. When he entered the classroom, just ahead of the teacher, he gave her his customary appraising glance before settling down beside his friends and beginning to unpack his bag. Fortunately, his presence diverted the attention from Reina onto himself, and the frowning girl mentally sighed in relief. Then the teacher walked in and began the lesson, and she gradually coaxed herself into thinking no more of any of it- for the time being.

Things got even stranger as Reina was walking to her second class of the night. She had just turned the corner in the hallway when she was unexpectedly waylaid by the Headmaster himself, frazzle-haired and out of breath. He waved at her furiously, even though she was standing three feet from him. The other night class students again turned to stare, and Reina felt like hiding her face. Instead, he motioned for her to lean in closer. "Reina," he whispered, "glad to see you've come back! I wonder, would you be able to come to my quarters this morning after your classes are done? I'll make you some food, and there's something important that we need to discuss…."

"Ah- yes, that would be fine." The young girl answered, surprised and intrigued. "Is this 'something' urgent? Should I come right now?"

"No, it's not _terribly _urgent." The Headmaster assessed, frowning slightly. "You should finish your school time first, since you've missed two nights already. But come to my quarters directly afterward."

"All right." Reina agreed, slightly crestfallen. Then she arched her eyebrow curiously. "Really, Headmaster, did you have to come over here yourself to deliver the message? Wouldn't one of the guardians have done just as well?"

"No." Kaien Cross shook his frazzled head, smiling at her astuteness. "I had to come myself. We'll discuss this in more detail later. Don't forget!"

"Of course I won't." Reina muttered to herself, watching the tall, bespectacled figure gamboling off down the hallway toward the exit. When she turned back around, she discovered that nearly all of the vampires had disappeared into their classrooms, with one notable exception. A tall, dark figure which she knew all too well was leaning against the far room's doorframe. He watched her with an air that was not so much invasive as it was supervisory. However, this made no difference to Reina. Tossing her head in his direction, the young girl turned and trotted down the stairs, taking the long way around through the entire second floor and then back up the back way to her third-floor classroom, just to avoid having to walk past him. It was a more than fair trade-off.

What could the Headmaster want to discuss with her? Reina pondered as she expertly tuned out the instructor's classist, offensive subject material. And why had he insisted that he had to deliver the message to her himself, in lieu of the guardians? Was it about them? Reina couldn't see how anything that had to do with Yuki or Zero could possibly concern her. She didn't know them very well at all. Perhaps it was about the fact that Kaname had discovered her secret. Yes, that would make sense, since neither Yuki nor Zero was aware that she was a half-blood. Or perhaps….Reina tensed as a new idea rose up in her mind. Perhaps it had to do with that ominous aura which she had sensed directly before meeting with the Headmaster on the night of the bloodletting. Maybe Kaien Cross was finally going to confide in her what that presence was about. If that was what he was-

"Miss Reina Oishi."

The voice of the instructor cut across Reina's senses like a blade across her skin. Starting, she jerked her head upward and met his dark grey eyes. He was standing near to her desk, but not so near that he could reasonably lean down and speak with her privately. He wanted the entire room to hear this discourse. "I would think that one so privileged as to attend an Academy so far out of their rank would be trying to make the best of this opportunity by _paying attention in class."_

This man was nothing to Reina. He was a gnat, a flea at the base of a mountain 2,000 miles away. However, as the half-blood girl looked around at the melee of staring eyes, she was aware that she ought to at least give some impression that she cared for the instructor's words, to avoid drawing more attention. She nodded vaguely in his direction.

"Well, then," the bearded man replied in clipped tones, clearly not satisfied. "Perhaps you can give us your opinion on the current question at hand. What do you think would be the most appropriate gift for someone of your rank to bestow upon a higher aristocrat, as thanks for giving them something of your possession?"

Reina thought for a moment, and then the bridge of her nose wrinkled in confusion as she noticed a structural oddity in the nauseating man's sentence. "You're asking what I would give to an aristocrat as thanks….when I had already given them something?"

"Yes, Miss Reina," the man intoned with the air of explaining something simple to a two-year old. But Reina still did not understand.

"But why would I give someone something, and then give them another gift 'as thanks?' What am I thanking them for? I'm the one who provided the first gift. I would give someone a present in thanks if _they _had given _me_ something first."

This seemed like common sense for basic living to Reina, but the classroom had gone oddly silent. The instructor's expression of mocking attentiveness had slipped off his face, and was slowly being replaced by serious outrage. He kept his voice calm as he approached a little closer. "But surely you know that it is an honor for something of yours to be requested by a person of higher rank. You would give them a second gift in order to thank them for doing you the honor of choosing something of yours for themselves. If your gifts are good and your intentions pure, then they will continue to turn to you to provide them with whatever it is that they require. Over time, your social position will improve because of this."

Reina blinked. Were these people serious? Was she seriously sitting in a darkened classroom in the middle of the night, pretending to care about improving her social position by allowing 'more important' beings to take whatever they wanted from her, and being grateful that they had even bothered to look at her for those two seconds? This was bullshit. Reina was still angry that she was here instead of in bed, and she was not going to play along. Simply, she replied, "Honestly, sir, I think that's outrageous. It sounds like institutionalized extortion to me."

Reina knew immediately that she had done it now, whatever 'it' was. The classroom, which had been totally silent before, now erupted into a cacophony of hissing whispers. For some reason, everyone was looking at Kaname, as if they expected him to do something. He was in charge of discipline in the vampiric jurisdiction of this Academy, after all. However, whatever it was they were waiting for, he did not do it. After a long moment of tense expectation, the instructor jerked his head and stepped up to her desk, snatching her unused textbook right out of her hands. "There is no place in my classroom for that kind of disrespectful talk, especially not from a low-born such as yourself. I won't have it! You disgrace our status and our customs. Leave immediately."

Reina did as she was told, standing up and turning her back to the still whispering class, heading out the back door through which she had come in. As she turned around to close it behind her, she caught sight of Kaname's eyes upon her, his features still and almost sad. A flare of spite which had nothing to do with the current situation rose up inside her, which she swiftly re-directed toward the teacher. "If you do not wish to hear my opinions, sir, please don't ask me to speak in class next time." Then she left, satisfied with having gotten the last word in such a classic manner.

Well. Attempt to speak common sense in a crazy place, and get accused of insubordination and banished. How long had things been this bad in the vampire world? Reina pondered as she sat atop the stone archway above the pond. If her history lessons were anything to go off of, they had been this bad for quite awhile. Reina was not trying to be a rebel. Of all the people whom her little outburst had surprised, it had probably surprised her the most. She had attended this Academy for four months now, and this was the first time she had ever been in trouble. This did not mean that she had never found anything about the vampire world outrageous before. In her opinion, almost everything about this blood-soaked night world was so blatantly out of line that it seemed to belong in a supernatural dystopian fiction, and not in the real world at all. But she was the only one that thought so. She remembered sitting in class in astonishment during the first few weeks as she listened to theories about 'levels' and their innate superiority/inferiority. She remembered waiting for someone to speak up, to challenge the instructor's obviously flawed logic, but no one had. They were all brainwashed or brain-dead, or some nefarious combination of the two. But she had not been raised in their world. Reina's mind was composed of the values of her human family, who had raised her to believe that equality was something precious and necessary to a righteous life. She would never see eye to eye with these vampires, no matter what her true 'level' was. This was yet another reason why she thought it should be obvious to everyone (even someone as ridiculously optimistic as Kaien Cross) that she did not belong here.

Once again Reina's thoughts were interrupted, this time by the scuffing of shoes down below. She glanced downward into the hostile face of the more aggressive Cross Academy guardian, Zero Kiryu. His black uniform stood out harshly against the rippling of the cool water behind him, lit up by the shimmering moon above. He had a wary right hand hovering near his hip, where Reina knew the Bloody Rose was concealed. She rolled her eyes and stood up on the archway. "I can leave if I'm ruining the scenery for you."

"Night class students are not supposed to be moving about the campus before they've been released from their classes. Go back to your classroom." The tall male ordered edgily, moving nearer to the archway.

"Well, I've been kicked out of my classroom. So I will definitely not go back." She replied matter-of-factly. Zero seemed surprised for a moment.

"Why, what have you done?" he inquired, eyeing her as if she might be a threat.

"None of your business!" Reina exclaimed forcefully, turning away from him and strolling to the other end of the archway. "You wouldn't understand even if I told you. You don't know anything about the vampire world."

She turned back long enough to see Zero's face darken inexplicably. The next moment, her indignation was driven from her mind as a dark wave of power filtered into her senses. With wide, sharp eyes, she scanned the pitch-black treeline. It was coming from somewhere just behind Zero, and she was sure- it was the same ominous presence as before. She turned toward the guardian only to see that he was clutching his sides, as though the presence was overwhelming him. What kind of power could put a damper on a vampire hunter?

"Oh shit- oh dear, this isn't good. Are you- all right?" she asked against her better judgment, leaning down over the stone ledge. Zero growled and jerked his head, a gesture which she took to mean that he did not appreciate her noticing his weakness. Standing up again, Reina decided that it would be best to take matters into her own hands as well as she could without revealing herself. She leaped down from the ledge and cast one more wary glance into the forest. "Guard that thing, Kiryu- I'm going to alert the Headmaster."

She was already running through the maze of Academy buildings when she heard Zero shouting behind her. "Wait! Come back! Stop, dammit!" Confused, the half-blood girl considered slowing down, but just then she rounded the corner and came in sight of a large group of night class students who had just been released from their class. Reina's better judgment returned, and she opted to just keep running as she slid fluidly past them. God knew what they were going to think of her now- absent for two days, kicked out of class, and then chased across campus by a prefect- but there were more important things to deal with.

Reina reached the administrative building in no time. Much to her surprise, she noted that Zero was close behind her, and he was still shouting for her to stop. Baffled, Reina stepped backward onto the stoop and was hit by the door as it opened. Yuki Cross leaned her head out and stared at Reina just as Zero reached the pair of them, panting and obviously very angry. By this time, Reina was indignant as well. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Kiryu? I was going to alert the Headmaster! You're not doing much good by chasing after me instead of guarding that thing in the forest! Now it might get away!" Even as she said this, Reina could still sense the threatening presence nearby, and this made her all the more agitated.

Yuki cocked her head in concern. "What thing in the forest?"

"Nothing," Zero growled through clenched teeth, straightening himself rigidly upright. "There's nothing in the forest."

Reina threw her hands up to the sky. "Have you gone completely insane? Really, totally insane? That thing has been hanging around for weeks! I know you felt its power just now, so why are you denying it? If this is some sort of stupid male pride thing, you need to sort out your priorities-"

"It's not what you think! And it is _none_ of your business!" Zero raged, raking a hand through his silver hair as if he would like to drag it across her mouth. Reina narrowed her eyes, similarly seething. The night wind picked up and rushed between the buildings, tugging at their Academy uniforms as they glared at each other on the stoop.

"Am I supposed to be satisfied with that answer? 'It's none of my business?' It's the whole Academy's business if it puts them in danger! I can sense the core of this thing, and believe me, it isn't friendly. I think it's a vampire, but who knows? You should be doing your duty as a guardian and chasing it away from the property, not covering up the fact that it's here! The Academy is not safe!"

"_Why do you care?"_ Zero bellowed, coming to the end of his rope. Reina opened her mouth to shout back an answer and found that she didn't have one. The silence was awkward and unexpected. A distressed-looking Yuki was fitting herself into the space between them, ready to shove them both back if they lost control of their anger. She looked so small and fragile- she was wearing an oversize, dark blue sweater which made her seem even tinier- and Reina suddenly felt guilty for frightening her. She was innocent in this. The taller girl stepped back and took a moment to cool her emotions, reminding herself that whatever was out there hadn't attacked them yet, and was unlikely to do so at the moment with so many vampires milling about on the grounds. She gritted her fanged teeth and answered calmly, "I am indebted to Kaien Cross for something very great. He is not my enemy. This Academy is his dream, and I do not wish to see it jeopardized. Furthermore, having the aristocrats gathered here in one place- under the control of a pureblood, and placated by blood tablets- is better than letting them run loose in the world to prey on humans. This Academy is the lesser of two evils."

Yuki looked very surprised, glancing over at Reina and then at the forest behind her. Zero was still ruled by anger. After a moment, the tiny human pivoted around the face her co-prefect. "Zero, what is she talking about? No one has told me anything about anything in the forest!"

He glanced away, hissing through his teeth. "You don't need to get yourself involved-"

"Of course I need to be involved! I'm a Cross Academy guardian! It's my duty to protect this school! I'm not so weak that you can't tell me these things!" Yuki exclaimed, her face shadowing over with hurt.

Just as Reina had concluded that this arguing was getting them nowhere, a softer voice intruded. "Excuse me, but is there some sort of emergency taking place?"

"It's under control," Reina snapped, just as Zero growled, "It's none of your business." The white-clad girl turned her back on the figure of Kaname Kuran and wrenched the side door open. "I'm going to see the Headmaster. Yuki-san, Kiryu, you can come with me or you can continue your patrol. Kuran, why don't you go and sulk by the pond? It seems to be what you're good at." She heard Yuki gasp aloud at her rudeness, and then she was on her way up the stairwell, Zero barreling after her.

"I told you, there's no point to this!" he snarled as she banged her fist against the door of the Headmaster's office. She officiously ignored him, and a moment later the door swung open as Kaien Cross leaned his head out and beamed.

"Reina-san! Right on time! Do c- oh, Kiryu, you're here too? And Yuki- Kaname-kun- why are you…."

Reina swung her head around to see the little prefect and the stately pureblood striding toward them. She was usually loathe to give in to her vampire instincts, but she boldly bared her fangs at the latter as he drew up beside them. "I told you to get lost, you degenerate!"

"Matters pertaining to the security of the Academy are of my concern, as President of the Moon Dormitory," he answered calmly. Reina felt like throwing him out of a window.

The Headmaster was still looking confused. "Is there something going on that I should know about? This was supposed to be a private audience with Reina-san…."

"That thing is back," Reina announced, shoving her way into his office in order to get away from the nauseating pureblood. "The one I told you about on Sunday night, when you said it was none of my concern. I should beg to differ now."

"Yes, that's actually what this meeting was supposed to be about…." Kaien Cross trailed after her into his office, looking worried.

"What?" Zero burst through the doorway as well, nearly tripping over the thick Indian rug. "Wait a minute, wait a minute- you told me that you needed to have a private meeting with me!"

"I was hoping to speak with you both _privately,_ on separate occasions, before talking to you together," the Headmaster fretted, biting his lip. "I suppose it would be no good now to ask you to leave, Kiryu?"

"I'm not going anywhere until she stops meddling in things that aren't her business!" Zero growled, pointing a sharp finger straight at Reina. She advanced upon him and was about to give him a repeat of her speech about keeping the Academy safe when Kaname interceded.

"Is this about what I think it's about, Headmaster?" he queried, and Kaien Cross nodded.

Reina's patience snapped. "Why is this smarmy little prince in on _everything?"_ she practically shouted, rounding on the Headmaster. Zero and Yuki looked very surprised at her reaction.

"Calm down!" Kaien Cross demanded, raising his voice for the first time that evening. "Everyone needs to calm down. Now, I don't know what happened earlier, but since you're all here now and I can't get rid of you, we might as well speak calmly. The truth is-" he sighed, glancing between the darkened figure of Zero and the light-white one of Reina, "-there is something that both of you need to know….about each other. My research has come upon….something new, and it's time we stopped keeping secrets."

It was like the floor had dropped out from underneath her as Reina realized, with a definite stab of betrayal, what the Headmaster wanted to do. She was too shocked to shout. "Are you mad?" she asked him softly, almost calmly. "You want to tell him _my_ secret?"

Zero had a much more violent reaction. He lunged for the Headmaster and grabbed the lapels of his coat, heaving him up against his desk. Yuki shrieked and started to race toward them, but Kaname held her back in his arms. "You promised," the prefect growled, barely forcing the words out between his clenched teeth, "You promised to never bring this up-!"

"It's too late, Kiryu!" the man insisted, bending backwards over his work table. "You can't hide it any longer. She's already sensing it. As soon as it solidifies, then she'll know for sure."

"Then kick her out of the Academy!" the prefect insisted, glaring back into Reina's eyes. "Aren't I worth more to you than _she_ is?"

"You don't know what she's doing for this Academy." Kaien Cross told his adopted charge softly. Zero hissed in rage and let him go, striding over to the window and staring out intensely. "I can't believe this. I can't believe it."

"It's bad enough that this bastard knows!" Reina signaled toward Kaname, having re-discovered her fury. "Why would you tell the prefects?"

"Because I've discovered a possible new use for your blood," the Headmaster directed his gaze toward her, "and it would be dishonest of me to use it for that purpose without your informed consent. When I took you into the Academy I couldn't promise you much, but I did promise that I would always be honest with you." He spread his arms out helplessly. "I had never planned to tell you like this."

"What on earth is going on?" Yuki demanded, stepping out from behind Kaname. "What's going on with Reina-san and Zero? Headmaster, why don't I know about any of this?"

"I was going to tell you as well, Yuki-"

"Why don't you just tell the whole world?" Reina burst out angrily.

Kaien Cross gazed at her with level eyes. "You need to at least consider what I'm asking of you, Reina. Zero as well. In secrecy there can be no cooperation, no trust, no understanding. You can't move forward with secrets burdening you."

"Oh, thank you so much for deciding for me when I needed to _move forward!"_ the white-clad girl snarled, eyeing his desk and wondering if it would break if she slammed her hand down upon it. Of course it would break. She was strong.

"It would be best if you told them yourself." He suggested gently, and suddenly Reina did not feel so strong anymore. She knew that there was no point in trying to hide it any longer- her secret was in shambles. The Headmaster had revealed too much. But the thought of telling them with her own mouth seemed ridiculous. She barely knew these people. She had never even said the word aloud when she had been conversing with Kaname two days ago. He had said it for her. Every phrasing which she thought of seemed like admitting a deficiency. _Half-blood; a half-blood who knows nothing about her real parents; a half-blood who has never met anyone else like herself; a half-blood who is still unsure how to use her powers; a half-blood who doesn't even understand what it means to be a half-blood._ She stared at the lot of them for a long moment, and then turned away. "You tell them. I'm leaving."

"Reina-"

"I'll be back in a few days, so don't freak out. But everyone should know-" she turned back to face the room full of baffled people, "-it doesn't matter what you find out about me. I want to be left _alone."_

"But Reina, you need to hear about Zero!" The young man by the window growled and clenched his fists. The Headmaster pressed on. "You'll need to learn to trust each other-"

"I don't care about Zero," Reina informed him flatly, glaring directly into his bespectacled eyes. "And I'm not even sure I trust _you_ anymore." She turned her back and strode toward the door. Kaname stepped out of her way as she swept through the doorway and down the hall, away from Kaien Cross and his pacifistic optimism which she did not believe in, away from the enigmatic guardians, away from the selfish pureblood whose fault it all was. She was not going home. She was not going to school today. She was going to get _away _from this suffocating world.


	6. Repercussions

**Hello, everyone! Sorry it took me a few weeks to update this story. I got distracted by Christmas, New Year's, and my other story, in that order. **

**One note: Reina's declaration of Kaname as a 'gang leader' is a reference to one of the humorous short pieces that Matsuri Hino included at the end of an early manga edition. I don't know why I felt the need to put that in here. I don't even know why I remembered that. XD**

**Thank you for reading my story! If you review, I'll give you cookies! Somehow! :D**

"You really need to come back and listen to what I have to say about Zero."

Reina was on the phone with the Headmaster again. Lackadaisically, she flicked a piece of dust off of her jeans as she leaned backward upon the rock where she was sitting, using her other arm to support herself. The water of a cool silver lake spread out before her. "I'll come back in a day. That will have to be good enough; I want to spend one more night here. You should know that right now I'm on the side of a beautiful mountain, exploring around lakes, swimming under waterfalls, watching wildlife. I'm all alone- the sky could just swallow me up. It should be understandable that I have absolutely no motivation to come back."

"Yes, but we're running out of time-"

"You gave me _no_ time to prepare for the fact that you were going to suddenly expose my identity to the Guardians." Reina informed him sharply. Kaien Cross sighed.

"I intended to ease you into the idea more slowly. However, the fact that all of you came charging into my office at once left me no option but to-"

"I will come back in a day," she repeated in a tone which indicated that this was the final word.

Kaien Cross hummed softly in assent. "All right, Reina. Don't be too angry at me. I promise there's a good reason why I did what I did."

"You'd think I'd be used to this by now," Reina grumbled, halfway to herself, before pressing the disconnect button and laying the cell phone down at her side. Really, it amazed her that she was able to get service out here at all. There wasn't another soul around for God knew how many miles. This was her secret place. There was a worn-down cabin just up the hill that she'd discovered several years ago. It had been abandoned for at least a decade, and the road which had led to it had grown over in shrubbery. Reina had partially fixed it up and claimed it as her own. This was where she came to get away from the chaos of living two lives. Way out here, she was neither a vampire nor a human. She was simply a person, a vibrant life that had somehow made it to this earth and settled in for an undetermined stay. She was herself, away from the world. She could paint out here.

Reina stood up on the rock and delicately stripped off her clothing, leaving only her bra and underwear intact. Her undergarments covered the same places which a bikini would have, so she didn't feel strange wearing them out in the open. Pausing for a moment, the half-blood girl considered the rippling lake water before her, twirling a strand of deep brown hair around a sharp finger. A marshmallow cloud passed over her head, and she smiled. In the barest rush of a second, she stepped forward and lunged over the edge of the rock, diving headfirst into the center of the cloud's reflection with barely a splash.

/

Reina didn't bother to change into her school uniform as she slipped out of her car a night later and made her way toward the administration building. She knew she wasn't going back to class until she got a damn good explanation from the headmaster about his inexcusable antics when she'd last been in his office- and maybe not even then. What infuriated Reina the most was that she didn't _need _to go to this school. When she had been younger, she had simply come to Cross Academy once a month for the bloodletting procedure- her father had insisted on driving her even though she could have very well run the distance herself- and then gone home the next morning. Easy, secret, and zero involvement with the students of the Academy. When she'd wanted to talk to the Kaien Cross, she called him on the phone, and sometimes he had come over to her house for dinner with her family. Reina didn't understand why things couldn't still be like that. Had he been planning to shanghai her into attending the night class even then? And now he wasn't even keeping her secret like he'd promised to. Just what was she to him?

A very disgruntled Reina was just about to stride through the administration's doors when she heard a soft shuffling of feet behind her. Whirling around sharply, she found that blonde guy standing there- Takuma Ichijo- looking slightly nervous and twiddling his fingers. "Ah. Reina-san? Hello. I'm Ta-"

"I know who you are," she interrupted with a frown, gazing down the steps at him. "You needn't bother with formalities. Did Kaname send you?"

"Ummm….well no, actually. I came on my own. He might be upset with me when he finds out that I approached you, but I'm doing this for his sake. I wanted to talk to you."

"How very loyal," Reina said dryly, eyeing him with caution. "And what is it that you want to say to me 'for Kaname's sake?'"

"I wanted to ask you….to please stop troubling him by pushing the limits of our society." Takuma stated with a serious face. "You might not understand, since you're a common vampire, but purebloods are our lords in all but name. They constitute the exclusive top portion of our ancient social hierarchy, which is sacred to us. You ought to know that the role of lower vampires is to revere and support those above them. But you act like we don't exist, especially Kaname, which is-"

"You're a twit if you seriously believe all that rubbish that's coming out of your mouth." Reina snapped as she turned away.

"See, that's what I mean!" Takuma insisted strongly, pursuing her up the stairs. "Reina-san, I don't care if you insult me personally. I'm not a very proud person and I don't mind it. I'd rather just keep the peace between us. But the other aristocrats are taking serious offence at the things you're doing and saying- especially toward Kaname." Takuma sighed. "I don't really understand why he hasn't stepped in yet. He's in charge of discipline for the entire Night Class, and he's usually very authoritative. He doesn't hold back when it comes to keeping classmates in line. So I don't understand why he hasn't put a stop to your behavior- but I can tell that's it's troubling him. As his friend, I don't want to see him troubled."

"So are you worried that I'm going to hurt your little prince's feelings?" Reina let the sneer bleed through her voice as she folded her arms tightly across her chest.

"Actually, believe it or not, I'm worried about you as well," the blonde-haired boy stated firmly. "I don't know what your motives are. I honestly think you must be crazy to go up against the mores of an entire school filled with aristocrats and a pureblood when you're only a common vampire whose powers are weak compared to ours. Still, I know for sure that unless you stop acting so scandalously and give your superiors the respect they're due, there will be violence done against you. I don't like to see people get hurt, and I also don't want the peace of this Academy disrupted. That's why I'm telling you now."

"That's very sporting of you," Reina acknowledged with a nod. "However, you can go ahead and tell your gang leader to send his thugs right to me, because I don't intend to stop for as long as I'm here. I'll take them all on."

"You can't! You're a common vampire!" Takuma stared to protest in alarm.

"I'm an uncommon common vampire." Reina declared, lifting her chin. "I'm the kind that doesn't get pushed around."

"Reina-san, Kaname is not as bad as you seem to think he is. He's not a greedy dictator trying to trample everyone under him. He has the power to directly control lower vampires with his command, but he refuses to use it. He allows us to makes decisions with our own free will."

"How nice," the brunette huffed, looking back toward the administrative building. She was well aware of the purebloods' power of involuntary compulsion over lower vampires. She was also aware that this power wouldn't work on her even if Kaname did use it, although Takuma obviously was not. "Well, if that's all you have to say, your concern will be noted. Right now I have a previous engagement to honor." The slender half-blood turned away from the other and made her way smoothly over to the doors. As she was about to go inside, she heard Takuma's voice again.

"Reina-san!" He made no move to follow her, but his eyes were lit up with concern. This one wasn't as much of a vampire as the others- at least, she didn't perceive him to be as threatening. His aura was not as deceptively sleek. "Are you really going to continue down this path?"

She nodded nonchalantly.

He sighed. "I can't stop you….but it's only right to warn you that if you continue to defy our sacred traditions and social hierarchy, things are not going to end well."

"I'm counting on it," she declared, before shoving her way through the doors and proceeding up the stairs, now late for her appointment with the Headmaster. He made no more attempts to follow her. Inwardly, Reina fumed at the audacity of the Night Class. Such 'entitled' creatures were really too intolerable.

As Reina pushed her way through the Headmaster's double doors, she was immediately engulfed by a thick cloud of smoke which was billowing up from the middle of the room. For a moment she was highly alarmed, until she peered through the smoke that filled the air and observed the headmaster yet again crouching over a miniature grill, roasting several speared fish over the hot coals. It was probably the most fire-hazardous activity ever undertaken indoors. Hearing her enter, the man whirled around cheerily and offered her a stick. "Reina! Come in! Would you like a fish?"

Reina didn't pause to consider. "I don't want a fish! I want an explanation!" she practically shouted, Takuma's words still ringing annoyingly in her ears. Kaien Cross backed off and withdrew his fish as Reina bustled angrily into the room, shoving open the window, throwing an arrangement of flowers out of a vase on his desk, and pouring the vase's water over the smoldering coals. A thick cloud of steam immediately wafted upward and spread out against the ceiling. "How are you even allowed to do that in here?"

"I disabled the fire alarm- just in this room," he explained, looking at her with a tilted face.

"Is there something wrong with you that you can't be serious for five seconds?"

"Well, _you_ certainly seemed to be having a good time when I called. Ditching school to tramp through the woods and swim under waterfalls? I ought to give you a mark for it- but as a fellow lover of the natural world, I just can't bring myself to do it!" The headmaster stared happily out the window, gazing at the moon as it fell into the rippling water of the pond. He still wasn't being serious. Reina fought back the urge to growl and rubbed her forehead instead. "I did think you might be in a better mood after such an enticing vacation."

"I _was,_ until I had an encounter with one of your lovely students," the brunette grumbled, folding her arms and joining him in gazing out the window at the classroom buildings.

He looked at her in surprise. "Oh? Which one? I didn't request that any of them talk to you-"

"I am telling you nothing, _nothing_ about anything, until you tell me what is going on here. I understand that you didn't realize that Kaname knew my true identity until I found that out for myself. But why would you even think of telling Kiryu? And Yuki? I know that they're your adopted children and the Academy guardians, but honestly- they're not even vampires! They've no need to know." Reina insisted, pressing her palms down flat upon the windowsill. "Perhaps if I was somehow a threat to the Academy, but I'm not."

"No, you're not, Reina," Kaien Cross replied, finally in a serious tone. "But there is a threat to the Academy, and it involves us all. That's why we need to be working together."

"That malicious presence which you keep allowing near the school," she declared, shaking her bangs out of her eyes aggressively. "Really, Headmaster, what are you-"

"It's not what you think it is," he told her swiftly. "Reina, the presence which you are sensing is not an intruding vampire. I've known about it all along."

"I don't see how it could be anything else," she shook her head. "It's definitely not a human. And there's something wrong with it. Most vampire auras are cool and silently staining. A pureblood's aura is _cold,_ through and through. But this one is just searing hot. It's wild, it's animalistic. It isn't still, and it just _splashes _across your senses like-" Reina struck her palm against the wall with a glancing blow, making sure not to actually crack the wood. "That's why I say it's a danger. A creature that agitated is bound to lash out sooner or later."

"Reina, listen." Kaien Cross took both of her shoulders and turned her body toward him, staring intently into her eyes. He almost seemed afraid. "This- this is important."

"I can see that," she replied, raising her eyebrow.

He sighed and lowered his head until his blonde ponytail flopped messily down onto his chest. "It's Zero."

Reina stared at him as if he might have meant something else. "It's- what?"

"Zero is the presence you've been sensing."

"But Zero is not a vampire. He's a vampire hunter. They give off an aura of their own, but one is easily distinguishable from the other, since the hunters are human. It's no human I've been sensing." Reina insisted, trying to wrap her mind around what the Headmaster was saying. It couldn't be true….but then, the first time she'd sensed that presence in the air, hadn't Zero been in the room with her? And the second time he had been below her on the ground, just a few feet away. She had never thought that a boy from a vampire hunter family could himself be a vampire. It had simply never crossed her mind that Zero himself might _be_ the presence. The tiny idea that had been suppressed in her mind a few nights ago suddenly re-emerged in full bloom. She stared at the Headmaster in alarm.

"Reina….Zero is-was-aaaah. This isn't easy." Kaien Cross squeezed his temples with his hand, lowering the other one from her shoulder. He sighed again. "Zero used to be a human. He was bitten by a pureblood vampire, and has been suffering a slow and forcible descent into vampirism ever since. The process is almost complete, which is why you have been able to sense him as of late."

It was interesting how just a few words could be used to sum up an entire lifetime of pain and suffering, Reina thought. Her pale hands chilled, and she said the only sensible thing she could think to say. "Holy shit."

"Now Reina, language that strong is unnecessary in almost every situation," the Headmaster scolded as he pulled the window shut and turned to face her again. "I won't elaborate on Zero's life story, just as I did not elaborate on yours when I told him of your true nature. That is something that only the two of you have the right to reveal at your discretion. But you need to know what Zero is at this point, just as he needs to know what you are. And by saying _what,_ I don't mean to objectify you-"

"But Headmaster," Reina cut across the older man's rambling, her eyes suddenly becoming narrow. "It's terrible what happened to Zero. But if he was bitten by a pureblood vampire, then doesn't that mean that he will-"

"He will eventually fall to level E and lose his sanity. Yes." Kaien Cross told her softly. For a moment, the room was silent.

"And you've been letting him live at this school, just letting him run around wherever he pleases, attending the Day Class with a bunch of humans, having knowledge of critical security junctures, _have you lost your mind?_" Reina demanded, her voice rising to a low shout until she cut it off, chest heaving in indignation. Much to her fury, he did not seem the slightest bit cowed.

"Unfortunately, we have reached a point where this arrangement cannot operate functionally anymore. Zero is no longer safe to allow into the world. Blood tablets fail to help him. He's sustained himself off of willpower thus far, but he is deteriorating more and more by the day. I'm giving him as much time as I can, but this can't continue. I'll have to lock him up….at the Hunter Society in less than a week's time, for his own safety….and that of everyone else."

For the first time, Reina truly sympathized with Kaien Cross as she observed his downcast, tremulous face. She didn't know much about Zero Kiryu at all, but she knew that the Headmaster thought of him as a son. And she did understand the bonds of the human family- she was part of one herself. Endeavoring to keep the natural sharpness out of her voice, she murmured lowly, "I am sorry, sir. You've been fighting a battle you can only lose." She paused for a moment, her amber eyes flickering. "With all due respect for the situation, though….I still can't understand why you're telling me any of this when you've been keeping it secret for years. If there's nothing anyone can do for Kiryu now, why do you even bother telling me that he's a vampire when he's about to disappear? And why tell him about me?"

"Because there _is_ something we can do," the blonde man declared, raising his head again. "This situation has not taken me by surprise. I knew that Zero was eventually going to falter. He can't help himself- the power of the pureblood's poison is too strong. I've been anticipating and planning for this time over the past several years. That's why….I believe I've found a way to help him."

"Good God, it involves me, doesn't it?" Reina crossed over to Kaien Cross's desk and fell into his chair, locking eyes with him across the wooden surface. As happy-go-lucky as the man seemed , he always had a plan up his sleeve. She should have known.

He nodded. "Your blood."

"My blood; my blood. What the hell can't my blood do? All those tests, all the things we found out about those little red and white cells that make me so different. All those test samples. What's the next use we're going to discover for my blood? Why don't we just use it as fucking Windex while we're at it?"

"I don't like the sound of that," the headmaster commented softly. Reina gritted her fanged teeth.

"Wait a minute, though. You just said that blood tablets don't help him, but blood tablets are made from my blood. So what makes you think that'll work?"

"In blood tablets, your blood is diluted and mixed with other chemicals and substances in order to make the tablets effective," he explained, pointing to a capsule on his desk in illustration. "It's not a pure substance, so its potency decreases. In tablet form, it's still strong enough to temporarily stymie a natural vampire's thirst. But for a former human….let's just say that they need the stronger medicine."

"So my blood's medicine now, is it?"

Kaien brushed his long bangs out of his eyes. "A pureblood's poison is extremely powerful. When you were speaking earlier, you mentioned that Zero's presence seemed 'agitated' and 'red-hot.' That's because of the venom in him. Simple blood tablets are not strong enough to help him control his thirst."

Reina sighed, putting her head in her hands. "So what will happen when he drinks my blood?"

"It cannot cure his instability entirely….only the blood of the pureblood who bit him can do that. But, taken regularly, it can preserve his sanity and stop him from falling to level E. In a sense, it will suspend his descent indefinitely." Kaien Cross piped up hopefully, gazing at her across the desk. Reina glared at the papers in front of her.

"And there's no other option but this?"

"Technically….the blood of a pureblood would have the same effect. You are similar to the purebloods in some w- I didn't mean that, I take it back entirely!" The headmaster quickly backpedaled as Reina moved to stand up, her aura becoming so dark that she thought that even a human must be able to sense it. "What I meant to say was that it would be better if we used your blood. Purebloods are proud creatures- I can't think of one who would be willing to donate their prized blood to a lowly former human. Zero is at the bottom of the night world's social structure, you know. Even if we did find one, the act of drinking a pureblood's blood can have some….rather unfortunate side effects, which I would hate to subject Zero to. If it's you, there won't be any innate side effects, except for-"

"_Except for-_"

"Except for those which you might choose to invoke. And I know you wouldn't do that unless you were being physically attacked by him, Reina." The headmaster adjusted his glasses and smiled in her direction. "And if you donate your blood to Zero, he'll keep his sanity and won't begin to attack people indiscriminately, which would negate the need for you to do that in the first place. So it all works out!"

Reina did not quite share the headmaster's cheery view of matters. However, she lifted her head out of her hands and gazed toward the cabinet where the empty blood vials were kept. "So if I agree to this, how much more blood would you need from me, aside from what's already taken for the tablets?"

"Oh, I wouldn't be taking the blood for Zero at the same time as the blood for the tablets. Losing too much blood at once could be detrimental to your health. I estimate I would probably need about three to four quarts a month, or you could give more regularly in smaller amounts if you wanted."

Reina shrugged. "I regenerate in less than 24 hours. Whatever works. If I could ask, though…." She looked at the headmaster through apprehensive eyes. "How did everyone….react when they found out about my half-bloodedness and your plan?"

"Well….Yuki doesn't know everything-yet." Kaien Cross admitted as Reina raised her eyebrow skeptically. "I told her and Zero that you were a half-blood, then acted as though that were the extent of my revelations. After she left to go on patrol, I revealed the rest. So she still doesn't know about Zero. I know, I know, I shouldn't be lying to my dear little daughter!" he wailed, flailing around guiltily. "I just didn't want Yuki to exhaust herself worrying about Zero while we waited for you to return so the plan could move forward." For a moment, Reina felt slightly guilty herself, until she remembered that it had been him who had sprung the revelation of her identity upon her with absolutely no warning whatsoever. "Anyway, Zero stormed out soon after and has locked himself in his room. He's seeing no one, so I have no idea what he thinks about anything. Kaname-kun saw fit to inform me that the use of the blood of one such as yourself to sustain a former human would be 'highly irreverent and offensive to the nobles of the vampire community.'"

"I care what Kaname Kuran thinks about anything just as much as I care what the prime minister of Tajikistan thinks about my new shirt. Which is to say; not at all." Reina crossed her arms grumpily as the distracted headmaster gazed at the article of clothing in question.

"It has a rather nice print-"

"Focus!" she demanded loudly, standing up from the desk. "If this is going to get done, it needs to get done soon. It sounds like we barely have any time left."

"We don't," he affirmed, moving forward. "So, does this mean that you agree? You're all right with sustaining Zero?"

"I'm not 'all right' with anything that's going on here, but yes, I do agree to your plan if it's the only option we have that doesn't involve something terrible happening to somebody. Zero Kiryu is a victim of the night world and all its cruelty; he is not my enemy. Also, he's your son. Sort of." Reina folded her hands in front of her in stoic determination.

"I'm so glad!" The headmaster exclaimed with a huge smile, launching himself toward Reina and attempting to hug her. She smoothly stepped aside and he crashed into his desk, the slippers on his feet flying through the air. She might have smiled- just a tiny bit- at the ridiculous sight. "I'll definitely make it up to you! I'll put all my researching power into helping you with your endeavors!"

"We're friends," Reina reminded him, beginning to button up her waist-length red jacket. "You don't need to do me any favors. Also, I don't have any endeavors, unless you count ceasing my enrollment in the Night Class."

"You will as soon as I've found out what they are!" Kaien Cross declared cryptically, wagging a finger in her face. Reina rolled her eyes and picked up a piece of candy from the jar on his desk.

"Contact me as soon as Yuki is informed of the whole story. I want to keep tabs on who has information about me and what I'm doing. Also, let me know what Zero decides to do. I assume you'll be seeing him soon. I'm going home."

"You should really stop skipping class-"

"By the way," Reina rotated the butterscotch candy in between two of her clawed fingers, staring at it pensively. "The pureblood who bit Zero- who was it?"

Kaien looked up into her eyes, blue on brown. "Her name is Shizuka Hio. She was called the madly blooming princess. There are rumors that she _is_ mad, and no one knows of her current whereabouts. If you want to know more about her, you should ask Kaname."

"I'm not asking that pretty boy anything." Reina declared with a scornful toss of her head. "But still….Shizuka Hio, hmmm? I wonder what she did it for…. Ah, well. I don't imagine I'll ever meet her, seeing as I don't run in the vampire circles of the underground. But if I ever do come across her, I'll be sure to give the presumptuous little princess a scratch to remember me by…." The fingers of Reina's hand suddenly spiked up into metallic spires, impaling the butterscotch sweet straight through the center. Dropping her fangs out of their sheaths, she carelessly bit down on the candy and pulled it off of her claw and into her mouth. She looked back and nodded respectfully as she turned toward the door. "Good night, Headmaster."


	7. First Blood

**Is it...? Could it be...? It is! A new chapter! XD I know I'm the slowest updater ever (maybe not exactly, but close.) If you yell at me for more to read (via the review or PM buttons,) I promise I'll move faster! I tend to lose track of my stories sometimes, but I usually come back to them with encouragement. I'm like some sort of confused dog... **

**Anyway, that aside, I'd like to say that I really appreciate that people come back and re-read my stories even when I haven't posted anything new yet. It makes me feel special. ^.^**

The next night, Reina stopped in at a late-night café before continuing her drive up to Cross Academy. She ordered a chicken donburi bowl and ate sumptuously; partly because she knew that she was going to need all the physical energy and nutrients she could get for the task at hand, and partly because she was aware that tonight was going to be very trying, and she felt like treating herself beforehand. The atmosphere in the café was fortifying. It was past most humans' normal dining hours, so the room was void of other customers to ogle at her. She stayed as long as she possibly could, sipping her spiced tea and gazing interestedly at the decorated fans on the walls. She only left when a group of scruffy young men came tromping in. She paid her bill, slipped quietly out the back door, and blazed her car up the night road in a hurry. She might desire to spend as little time as possible in the Cross Academy night class, but it would be even more disagreeable if she arrived late and had to walk past everyone's staring eyes.

After a lightning fast uniform change, Reina coasted into her first class of the night and made a beeline for the back of the classroom, as she always did. She tried to look neither to the left nor the right, but she could not resist sneaking a suspicious glance toward Kaname Kuran and his fan club. The pureblood boy was gazing evenly back at her. Reina's eyes slid to Takuma, who was folding his hands together and looking concerned. For a moment, she wondered if he was truly worried that someone might try to incite violence against her; then she tossed the idea out of her mind. She could take anything that came her way, and she certainly didn't need someone like him fretting over her.

While the class lasted, Reina took notes on the instructor's topic, which was still the multitude of treaties which had been made and broken between vampires and vampire hunters over the years. It was taking the class forever to get through this unit, and Reina could sense the attention of the students wandering out the windows and slipping away down the halls. Her own attention span remained mostly internal, although every so often, much to her annoyance, it would wander away across campus, down a corridor she had never seen, to wherever Zero Kiryu was at that moment. She drew a long, meandering, black line through the center of her notebook paper, winding it around the letters and words of her notes like a maze, until it made it out the other side as the class ended. She was out of her seat and flying toward the door before the other students has finished trickling out. As she dodged her way through their distasteful, stiff bodies, a cold hand landed on her shoulder for a fraction of a second. "Reina-san, could I have a momen-"

She pulled away. "No," she stated flatly, not bothering to grace Kaname Kuran with a full response. She was highly annoyed when another white-clad body materialized in front of her as she tried to clear the doorway.

"_Are you out of your mind?"_ Ruka Souen hissed maliciously. She was just as tall as Reina, but she seemed to be trying to glare down at her as if from an imperial height. The other vampires had stopped their usual post-class murmuring. Reina glimpsed the worried face of the instructor for a fraction of a second, but only that- she didn't slow her pace, instead veering sharply around Ruka and continuing her determined stride toward the stairs. Her mind was not on them, the vampires, the class, none of them- something was wrong. Up ahead, in the administration building, she could sense the red thing, heaving.

She heard Kaname's soft voice behind her; "Ruka," and thenTakuma; "Let's all go to class, yes?" The customary murmurings of the other students did not start up again. Reina did not look back.

It went against every instinct in her body to run _toward_ the red presence, but Reina did it anyway. She darted along the sidewalks and was bounding up the stairs of the administration building in a matter of seconds, her natural defenses causing her claws to harden directly underneath her skin. She didn't bother being stealthy, instead slamming through the doors and sniffing raptly at the air. She didn't smell blood in the building. Her immediate fears allayed, Reina stood still for a moment and listened. She heard movements upstairs in the Headmaster's office- movements which sounded slow, soft-paced, and natural. He was up there, and he seemed to be all right. He probably didn't suspect a damn thing, human senses being as dull as they were. Reina's own senses, however, were vibrantly indicating that the creature with the red, unstable aura was right in front of her.

She started to walk forward toward the main stairway, and had almost made it there when a tall, lanky figure staggered into view from behind an open door. His clothes were loose and rumpled, and his silver hair was mussed. The shadows under his eyes were so deep that they seemed to be cutting into his face. His arms hung down at his sides like he didn't know what to do with them. His gaze was locked on her face. "You."

"Jesus Christ God almighty, _what_ are you doing here?" Reina demanded angrily, holding her ground on the tile floor. "You're supposed to be in your room, not wandering around scaring the fuck out of me. I thought maybe the Headmaster-"

"No. No." The guttural denials barely came out as words. He was panting slightly, and his voice was painfully pressurized. "You….I know what you are."

"Yes, I know that." Reina told him sharply. "The Headmaster told me. I know what you are as well. Look, if you want to talk to me about it or something, we can discuss it after you've been stabilized. You shouldn't even be out here now…."

"You're a half-blood….vampire. I didn't even know….that your kind existed until two nights ago. I thought they were legends."

"It was a well-kept secret," Reina affirmed, pacing to the side of him. "Now, if you'll move, I really need to go on-"

"Your blood….is like theirs. The purebloods."

Reina wheeled around to face him fully. "It most certainly is not!" she growled, leveling her chin in his direction. "I'm going to forget you said that since you don't seem to be in your right mind at the moment, but you've got a lot of nerve! You just admitted that you haven't even known about the existence of 'my kind' for a week, and yet you go right ahead with making false assumptions about us. You don't know what half-bloods are. Also, in case you've forgotten, you're going to be drinking _my blood_ if you want to stay sane, so you're the last person who has any right to say something so derogatory about it!"

Reina figured that she was probably wasting her rant; Zero seemed to be having trouble focusing on her. His eyes kept sliding around, and it was obvious that he was straining tremendously to hold himself together. There was a lot of pride in this one; she had to admit that she was impressed by his resolve. Even so, she stepped back warily as he lurched a step forward. "Don't come near me," she warned, sliding the points of her claws out of her fingertips. "I'm serious. You need to be stabilized before you do anything. Your sanity is being held together by glue stick and scotch tape right now."

"Why do you care?" he breathed raggedly, managing to meet her eyes; she was disturbed to see that his irises were rapidly darkening to a bloody red. "Why are you doing this?"

If the situation hadn't been so dire, Reina would have laughed. "You are too much," she stated bluntly, shaking her head. "At this point, you're way too far gone to be worrying about what's going on in _my_ head. You don't have time to fuck around, Zero Kiryu. There's a life preserver in front of you; either grab it or drown, but don't float around agonizing about it. You're putting the efforts of everyone who cares about you to shame."

"Now, I'm going upstairs to see the Headmaster. You stay here until we're through. We're going to draw a pint of blood from my veins, and then I'm taking off. Come upstairs if you want to keep living. It's your choice. I know that that choice was taken away from you the first time around, and the life you have now isn't what you wanted. But no one's going to choose for you this time. It's all yours." Reina held her hands in front of her, palms out, as she moved carefully around him and started up the stairs, avoiding turning her back to him. A last-minute thought crossed her mind. "Of course, if you really want to kill the pureblood, Shizuka Hio….you know what to do."

Zero's body straightened and he grew very still, staring up at her in a moment of crystal-clear focus. Reina waited, somehow feeling that she should not break it. After a long second in which possibilities diverged and the footsteps of the Headmaster in his office above suddenly grew silent, the silver-haired boy laid his hand against the side of his neck and murmured, "Go," into the still air. Reina departed, leaving him standing at the bottom of the stairs, clutching his neck as though he had been freshly wounded there. She didn't know what that was about, but she was satisfied that she had done her extra bit to fulfill the Headmaster's wishes. Zero Kiryu would live. They just had to hurry.

Reina entered the Headmaster's office like a shot-put, and found him standing aimlessly over his desk. He looked surprised, if not greatly relieved to see her. "Reina! Come in! I wasn't expecting you until after your classes ended….."

"Got kicked out of my culture class a few days ago. Not going back." Reina told him shortly, crossing over to the cabinet and removing a clear, sterile pack from within. "Zero's downstairs."

"What- Zero? Right now? He's downstairs right now?" The Headmaster glanced toward the door in alarm as Reina bobbed her head. "Why did he leave his room? He knows he shouldn't…."

"He seemed to be waiting for me, but I have no idea what he actually wanted, if anything. He just said a bunch of weird stuff. He's losing his grip." The brown-haired girl flopped down into the Headmaster's chair and rolled up her uniform's sleeve. "We need to get this done right now. I told him to come up here as soon as we're through drawing my blood. Jesus Christ-" She looked toward the closed door, then glanced uncomfortably away again. "-I didn't know it was so bad."

Kaien Cross nodded in assent, closing his eyes briefly. "I wish I knew how to save him beyond merely suspending his descent into madness. I wish I could discover a way to return him to the way he was. Even though his family cannot be restored to him, at least he could be free and wholly himself. However, for now, this is the best we can do…." He sighed quietly. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah. Stick the needle in." Reina held out her arm for the sterile needle, squeezing her hand into a fist to make the bluish vein bulge outward more. "Don't bother with the antiseptic; I'm a half-blood vampire, for goodness sake. Nothing's going to infect me. Just do it quickly."

The blood ran through the tube and into the bag as though a dam had burst, allowing the water to rush out in full force. Reina leaned back in the padded chair and listened to the quiet howl of her blood escaping her body through the miniscule hole which had been torn in her arm. She breathed steadily. Kaien Cross knelt beside her and monitored the filling of the bag. Off-handedly, he commented, "So what's this about you getting thrown out of your culture class? I haven't heard anything about this."

"Let's just say that I come from an entirely different culture than the rest of the vampire students, and the cultures clashed." Reina kept her head leaned back and closed her eyes.

"I can speak with your instructor-"

"I don't want to go back to that class, anyway. I've got better things to do."

"Reina, as much as you refuse to believe it, it will serve you to learn about the vampire world from its inhabitants' own perspective. Someday you may wish to actively participate in that world."

"Why would I ever want to do that?"

Kaien Cross sighed. "You don't know very much about the history of your people, do you?"

"I know enough," Reina argued assertively, eyes still closed. "I just don't know how that history can be translated into my experiences today. Half-bloods are dying out, and soon we'll all be history."

"You don't know that."

Reina cracked open an eye and met the Headmaster's gaze. They stared at each other. "And you know differently?"

The blonde man sighed again. "Stick around, kid, and I may be able to find you some answers." He then ducked his head and busied himself with detaching the tube from her arm, placing the blood-filled bag onto the table beside her.

She opened her other eye. "Did you just call me 'kid?'"

"Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you would go on to your Ethics class now," the man stated with a half-smile, carrying on as if he hadn't heard her complaint. "You're probably thinking about ditching the rest of the night, but I think it would be beneficial if you remained on campus, just in case anything else comes up." Reina did not have to ask what he meant by that. She was aware that this was more of an experimental test than a certain success. What if Zero, for whatever reason, could not tolerate her blood? He would go insane- and how would that affect the Headmaster, the school? She thought about him waiting downstairs, near-mad with bloody thirst. They were almost out of time.

"I'd better go. You'll be all right here with him?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. I'll be observing him throughout the day tomorrow, and by nightfall, we should know whether or not it's been effective. If you could stop by my office about a half-hour before your first class, I'll brief you on how Zero's responding to your blood and what….that will mean." He faltered for a moment, and Reina glimpsed fear hiding behind his spectacles. He laid a hand on her shoulder. "No matter what happens, Reina, I can never thank you enough."

Reina brushed a lock of brown hair over her face like a shade. "It's not really a big deal. My body hardly misses the blood it's lost." This was true- she hadn't even lost half the amount she normally did during the monthly procedure for the blood tablets. She could hardly sense the absence of the pint. "Go and call Zero now. I'll see you tomorrow. I hope it works."

The half-blood girl decided to use the window, keen to avoid another strange encounter with the guardian downstairs. She slid the pane up and heaved herself out as soon as Kaien Cross left the room. The stars glittered above her as she arched her body through the air and fell gracefully to the ground, beginning to jog toward the classroom buildings once again. She felt a little bit weaker, but not much; she could already feel her heart pumping strongly within her, replenishing her blood supply. She would have to eat more food as soon as she got out of Ethics class- her body was wanting of nutrients. She wondered if the employees at the wayside café would find it odd if she came by again in the morning after stopping there the previous evening. Right now, she wanted muffins….

Reina didn't concentrate much in Ethics class as she drew pictures of muffins on the side of her notes. Once again, her thoughts kept wandering away from her, meandering over to the Headmaster's office where Zero Kiryu would right at this moment be drinking the blood which she had just given up. She wondered how her blood tasted. She wondered what her Ethics professor (she didn't remember his name,) would say about what she had just done. Right or wrong? And by whose standards- vampire or human? And what if she fell into neither category?

As soon as the class ended, Reina ghosted out the door, tossing her homework assignment onto the instructor's desk as she left. She began to root through her bag as she hurried along, searching for her cell phone so she could keep track of how much time she had to stop at the café before school. She had made it down three flights of stairs before she realized that she was being followed. She did not turn around, but she could sense five of the presences which she had learned to be suspiciously aware of over the past week. Takuma was the only one missing. If he had not warned her beforehand, she might have been uncertain of their intentions, but now she had no doubt. She understood perfectly. She kept walking. She pushed through the doors and made it outside, five ominous shadows dogging her own. Their vampiric aura was sleek, and they were not trying to conceal it from her. She passed by the windows of the administrative building, glancing pensively up at those of the Headmaster's office. She momentarily considered simply walking inside, where they could not follow her; she was not afraid of fighting them, but she did not want to jeopardize her true identity any further. She decided against it, however, and turned her shoulder to the familiar doors. This fight was going to happen at some point or other- she might as well get it over with now. Anyway, if she lured them far enough away from the Cross Academy buildings, she could defend herself without the rest of the Academy becoming aware. Even these foolish five would never know what hit them. The half-blood girl continued to keep her back to them as she walked, reaching up and pulling her brown hair out of its bun with deliberate slowness. From the top of her palate, a pair of bone-white fangs dropped down. They were almost there.

The clearing beside the empty building where she parked her car came into view. Reina could feel the silent presences closing in. As her feet skimmed the grassy edge of the treeline, she lifted up a thin white hand, placing the fingertips inside her mouth and pausing for a moment. She saw herself in her mind's eye, and her eyes were red. Her lips pursed, and her fangs clamped down over her hand, pooling a swell of blood into her mouth. She swallowed it and dropped her hand, letting the new blood drip down and become lost among the eaves of grasses. To her, she tasted normal. Metal and melted velvet. Reina stared blankly ahead as she turned around to face her pursuers, determined to finish it quickly. The last time this had happened, she had made a promise to herself. Whatever she might be, no one, vampire or human, was ever going to knock her off her course.

**Zero wants YOU to review this chapter. XD**


	8. The Night The World Froze Over

**Here we go with another chapter! Sorry to have left off with a cliffhanger last time. I do that sometimes... :)**

The first body lunged at her from the left. Reina drew her claws out of her fingers and tore into the chest of her assailant with a single clean swipe. For a moment, nail-tipped hands were grappling with her own; then her way was clear as her attacker's momentum carried him past her. She heard the thud of a body behind her, and she glared up into the faces of the remaining four vampires.

They were impatient. Their red eyes were fixed upon their comrade behind her, waiting for him to rise. "Hanabusa, get up! You're wasting time!" hissed Ruka Souen, pacing a line which ran parallel to Reina. The half-blood girl smirked.

"Wasting time? What, are you going for a new record time for assault and intimidation? Does one of you have a stopwatch?"

"Hanabusa, you idiot, get her!" Ruka snarled, her eyes still fixed upon the unmoving figure on the ground behind Reina . Her loose brown hair blew about her in the wind.

"He won't be getting up," Reina flatly informed the group, pulling her shoulders up out of her instinctive defensive hunch. She didn't turn around to look at the still body behind her. "The rest of you should just turn around and go on back to your little school now. There's no need to make a spectacle out of whatever resentment you have against me."

"We demand that you acknowledge Kaname-sama as your lord and apologize to him immediately for your complete lack of respect!" Ruka exclaimed aggressively. At the same time, Akatsuki Kain stepped forward and called out in an uncharacteristically loud voice, "What have you done to Hanabusa?"

"He'll recover," she declared flippantly. "But I have no qualms about doing the same to you as well." Her right hand rested at her side, still tingling from the poison she had injected into it with her fangs, but she knew that she would be all right. She was unable to be adversely affected by her own poison.

"How _dare_ you attack an aristocrat!" Ruka raged, drawing out her own claws from her perfectly manicured fingers. "You will definitely be expelled for this! We'll have you arrested as well! Once Kaname-sama finds out-"

"Do you have absolutely no sense whatsoever?" Akatsuki Kain demanded in a tone of extreme disbelief, looking at her intensely. "What are you thinking? Did no one ever teach you _anything_ about how to behave as a vampire?"

Reina's eyebrow twitched. "I don't have time to delve into useless embellishments on my character with the lot of you. It's not as though you would understand, anyway. If we're going to fight, let's fight. You're making me late for my next engagement." She glanced cautiously at the other two vampires, who were grouped together on the side and staring at her across the invisible line which divided them. Toya Rima and Shiki Senri had yet to say anything or make any movements. They didn't even look angry. They were watching the action play out with languid expressions and half-lidded eyes, looking like they weren't quite sure how they'd got here in the first place. Were they even going to participate? Reina wondered as she hardened her claws and bared her teeth, shining the redness of her eyes directly at her opponents. In the long run, however, it didn't really matter whether she was now up against two vampires or four. She had to end this before they could attack, before they forced her to give too much away. She took the risk of closing her eyes for a moment, concentrating, reaching deep inside of herself to find the control she needed. She felt the fingers of her mind close around her half-blood aura. An effervescent sensation began to spread across her skin, as if her blood were boiling within her. She carefully kept it restrained, holding it back an inch from the surface. She had to release it at the last possible moment, so that the aristocrats would have no time to observe anything that was happening before they lost the ability to think at all. The time was almost here. When she opened her eyes again, Ruka's claws were two inches from her face.

Reina jumped backward into a lash of fire which knocked her to the ground. Ruka was on top of her instantly, but before her claws could pierce, Reina kicked her off and flipped upright, dodging another jet of flame from the red-haired vampire on her left. Akatsuki Kain strode sideways, warily positioning himself in between his fallen cousin and the dueling females. Ruka swiped at Reina again, and the half-blood girl grabbed the other's wrist and hit her soundly in the face. She heard an angry shout, and then she had to jump backwards again as a fireball flew into the space which she had just occupied, setting the previously lush grass aflame. Reina's skin blistered painfully from the searing impact of the first fireball, which she had not felt until now. Akatsuki Kain was becoming too careless with his powers. Several trees were on fire at the edge of the clearing, and now the clearing itself was beginning to burn from the inside out. It wouldn't be long at all before the rising smoke brought people running, day class and night class alike. She had to end this now, so she could put out the fire and escape without being seen. It was time. As Ruka charged at her for a third attempt, Reina lifted her needle-sharp left hand high into the air and prepared to plunge it down into the side of her own body.

"Stop."

Ruka froze immediately. Reina kept going until the voice repeated itself: "Stop." Then she peered up, red eyes blinking in realization as two additional figures materialized in the clearing. Kaname Kuran was standing quietly at the edge of the clearing, wearing black pants and a loose, dark shirt which was halfway hanging open as though he had not had time to finish buttoning it. The tousled-blonde figure of Takuma Ichijo was beside him, still wearing his night class uniform.

"Kaname-sama!" Ruka gasped as Akatsuki stepped back respectfully. Reina's eyebrow twitched again. Her blood was still boiling. For a moment, she considered simply carrying on with her original plan and putting the lot of them out of commission. However, Kaname would probably not be disabled by the true scent of her blood as the others would, and then she would have to deal with him _trying to talk_ _to her,_ which was many times worse than having fireballs thrown at her. She dropped her hand with a grunt of disgust, glaring at the pureblood. Kaname gazed evenly at his subordinates.

"You attacked Reina-san recklessly, with no thought to the Academy's rules and no regard for your surroundings." He indicated to the clearing, which Reina suddenly realized was no longer burning. Even so, the fire scars formed an ugly swath across the formerly pristine forest scenery, out of which thick black smoke was still rising.

Ruka gazed at the ground. Akatsuki looked away. "We were trying to defend your honor, Kaname-sama. We have been appalled by this girl's repeated disregard for your position and the respect due to you as our pureblood lord. To see a low-born such as this one constantly defying our-"

"Did I ask you to defend my honor? Did I instruct you to act for me?" the dark pureblood demanded with a bite of anger in his voice. "Did you even bother to consult me before acting? Did you think I would be pleased with the outcome? A student has been harshly assaulted who was posing no physical threat to anyone. The peaceful directives of Cross Academy are in shambles. This is unacceptable."

"We apologize, Kaname-sama." Ruka intoned softly. Akatsuki nodded alongside her. Reina rolled her eyes, appalled at how easily they backed down before their little prince. They really did have no wills of their own. Spineless.

"What happened to Aidou?" Kaname asked, giving no indication of accepting their apology. Ruka pointed sharply across the clearing.

"_She_ did something to him. She attacked an aristocrat with no reservations!"

"Did he attack first?" Kaname questioned, and Ruka was silent. "Aidou has always been too impulsive…." He straightened up further. "Are you hurt, Reina-san?"

"Hardly," she scoffed, taking a step back as he turned his attention to her. That was her cue to leave. "But I'm afraid I can't be bothered to stick around for any more lovely explosions of rage on the part of your friends. I'm leaving."

"Please wait a moment," he called after her as she swirled around and began to stalk away toward her car. Reina bared her fangs at the empty building in front of her. Her uniform was in tatters. Her white skirt had become a stiff patch of ugly brown, and the material which covered the left side of her abdomen, where the fireball had hit, had been completely blown away. The underside of her red bra was exposed, as was her naval. Reina could feel the damage to her skin rapidly healing, but at this moment her side still hurt like hell. She refused to turn around, afraid she'd wince or show another sign of weakness. She heard movement behind her, and stiffened instinctively.

"Takuma, please accompany these four back to the Moon dormitory and see that they remain there until I return. They will all be subject to discipline for violating the Academy's rules in such an egregious manner. That includes you two, Rima, Senri. Failure to take action to prevent someone else's malicious behavior is not much different than committing that same behavior yourselves."

"Kaname-sama-"

"Go, Ruka," the pureblood's voice insisted firmly. Reina heard the retreat of reluctant footsteps along the path which led back to the main Academy grounds. She kept her back to Kaname, using all of her subsequent senses to monitor his movement. He waited until they were out of vampire-earshot before he spoke again. "Takuma warned me."

"I know," she snapped, staring straight ahead at her car. "He warned me as well. I just didn't think it would be so soon."

"I apologize very deeply for their actions." He came a few steps closer to her. "I do not in any way condone-"

"Look, if there's something you want to say besides all of this meaningless lip-service, you'd better hurry up and say it. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a little distressed and I'd like to leave." Reina shot at him, pivoting on her foot and turning back around to glare at him impatiently.

He watched her quietly from under his thick lashes, his gaze drifting down her shoulder to her exposed arm. "You were going to confuse their senses by saturating the air with the smell of your blood. You changed your aura to that of a half-blood's."

Reina folded her arms. "So?"

"It's an ingenious defense mechanism. So unexpected. One would think it would expose you to danger, but it actually protects you."

The half-blood girl shrugged. "When I draw up my poison, the true scent of my blood causes them to go crazy with thirst and try to attack me. But they also become uncoordinated and unthinking. It's rather easy to defeat them when they're in that state. It's pathetic, really."

Kaname glanced back at the school, then at her again. "The blood of a half-blood….so precious and rare, so full of silent power….and yet you let it flow so carelessly into the dirt."

Reina gazed at him evenly, red moons in her eyes. "My blood. I can do what I want with it. You don't see me going around telling you what to do with your _precious_ blood."

"You cannot save Zero Kiryu. You can only suspend him above the pit of madness. He will become dependent upon your blood to give him more time to hold on, but all that time will only lengthen his torment. Tell me, Reina-san, is it not cruel to let him dangle there?"

Reina felt her claws lengthen again. Ignoring the fact that her bra was showing, she strode over to the pureblood and planted herself right in front of him, chest pounding in indignation. "You are just full of it, aren't you? To listen to you, one would think you had some sort of moral superiority, but you don't really know what the fuck you're talking about. This is not your choice to make for Zero. From what I've heard, a pureblood changed him into a vampire against his will. That wasn't a choice that was hers to make, the presumptuous bitch. And now here you come, another pureblood, trying to do the same thing-making decisions for him because you're higher up in the food chain. Get over yourself! Let him hold on if he wants to hold on! It's his choice. Maybe he still has something to live for. _You_ don't know." Reina jabbed her clawed finger at him and spun around again, striding across the clearing and muttering 'pureblood' and 'bastard' under her breath. Much to her chagrin, the bastard pureblood in question pursued her gracefully across the burned grass.

"Reina-san, wait. I understand your perspective on this matter. I am merely trying to point out the likelihood of events-"

"You can take your damned likelihood right back to where you came from!" the angry girl barked, pointing aggressively in the direction of the Moon dorm. Kaname stepped back, and for a moment Reina dared to hope that he had finally gotten the message.

"May I ask you something?"

"Oh, for the love of- what?" she growled in exasperation.

"What have I done to make you hate me with such great passion?"

Reina wanted to throw something at him. "If you really have to ask that, you're just hopelessly stupid and you can't be helped."

"Do you hate me because of the history between purebloods and half-bloods?" Kaname pressed on, tilting his head to the side. Reina noticed that the sun had cracked the lip of the horizon behind him.

"No, you idiot, I don't hate you for what your ancestors did. I hate you because of what you're doing right now, perpetuating their lifestyles and upholding the structure of the world over which they made themselves kings." Reina gestured harshly to the earth upon which they were standing.

Kaname blinked. "I am merely living within the nature of my destiny. I am different from aristocrats and common vampires. I cannot change the way in which I was born, and I cannot change how I must live. You don't realize this because you are so young, but Reina-san, if you continue to deliberately upset the balance of the night world….things will get ugly."

Reina's face lost all expression. He didn't get it. He did not fucking comprehend. They were talking at each other from two different realities. "Will you open your goddamn eyes?" she hissed in fury. "We're living in a world where people like _you_ get to stand because the majority of the population is kept on its knees; where nobody even _tries _to give a damn about anything besides their own aspirations and social positions; where every king and queen has their own little empire and they wage undercover wars against each other, burning through resources and trading life like currency. You're at the center of that world! I see what's going on, and let me tell you, _things are already ugly!_"

Reina turned back around and reached the side of her car, fumbling in her non-destroyed skirt pocket in search of her keys. She heard Kaname take a few more steps toward her. "Reina-san- I never asked to be-"

"No! No more!" she shouted in exasperation, finding her keys and unlocking the door. She really felt like throwing her car at him, but then she would be out of a car. "I have _nothing _to talk about with you, Kaname Kuran, so just go back to the Moon dorm and let your little friends whine to you about how nasty I am. Nobody chooses how they were born, but everything afterward, that's another story. And I really can't stand your arrogant choices- so get out of my face!"

Reina shoved herself inside her car, slammed the door shut, and peeled off down the forest road. This seemed like it was becoming a regular occurrence for her, driving away from Cross Academy in a rage as the morning broke. Why did she keep coming back to this damn school? It was like shooting herself in the foot. The burn marks had disappeared from her flesh, and the last vestiges of pain were fading as Reina whirled through the town and merged back onto the highway. She did not stop at the roadside café for breakfast. She did not turn off at the entrance to her school. The half-blood girl drove directly to her home and cut the engine as she pulled into the drive, staring up at the window to her room. Her father's car had already left for work. If she moved swiftly and climbed up the side of her house and into her bedroom window, her mother would never know that she was home. Fortunately, the layout of her driveway was tilted in such a way that it could not be seen from the living room or the neighbors' houses.

Pausing for a moment, Reina applied her hearing in full force to the block around her, making absolutely certain that no one was watching, before she slipped out of the car and took a flying leap off the ground and onto the base of her house's roof. Silently, she scrabbled along the edge until her clawed hand came to rest upon her bedroom window's frame. Reina had learned to usually leave it cracked open a tiny bit when she was out, in case a situation like this ever arose. Pulling the glass out underneath her, Reina swung into her room and dove directly onto her bedsheets, burying her face into the nest of blankets in which her cat usually slept. For a while, she just lay there, determined to do nothing that would aggravate her pounding headache more. The morning sunlight swept over her skin, illuminating her, but Reina still felt cold. The loss of blood always made her feel cold. Or perhaps she had just always been cold to begin with. Her mother had called her a snowbird baby when she was young. She had told Reina that she had blown into their doorway on a snowstorm one night as an infant. As a child, Reina had liked the idea of herself blowing along in the wind and snow, tumbling suddenly through the door of her parents' old home in the forest like a declaration of fate. _Here I am._ Of course, this had just been her mother's way of trying to adjust her young daughter to the fact that she had not been born to them; that she was from elsewhere. Reina had finally been told the full story when she was ten. She _had_ blown through her parents' door in the middle of a snowstorm, but she hadn't done it all by herself. A man had carried her there that night, a man whom her parents described to her as "kind," but "clearly in the midst of terrible despair." He had blonde hair, her mother said, not light blonde, but a darker color. He was young, about in his early twenties. He would not introduce himself, and her mother barely managed to coax him in the door. He had a tiny baby girl wrapped up in his arms in a white blanket. They could not tell if she was sleeping, but she never opened her eyes. The man's eyes were wide, wide open, painful fear flashing in each bright iris. "This is my baby- my daughter," he told them while the snow blew past them into the house. "Her name is Reina. She's dying. Her mother is already dead. I need you to- I need a place for her to stay, peacefully, so she can- she can't be with me. I can't give her that. If they find her- please, do you think you could-"

Her mother moved forward to try to get a closer look at the baby. Her father, dumbstruck, offered to call someone, and the stranger rapidly shook his head. "You can't! You mustn't tell anyone about this for at least a day. Otherwise they'll know. And promise me- you must _not_ set foot outside this home for the rest of the night! Do you understand?"

Of course, her parents didn't understand, and they were highly alarmed by the stranger's desperate insistence. At that moment, the wind changed, and he seemed to decide that his time was up. "I'm sorry," he murmured to the baby as the concerned woman pried her out of his hands. "Your mommy and I, we're both so sorry….we didn't know you were going to die. We didn't know there was nothing we could do! We tried to make you….as happy as possible…." With tremendous strength, he pulled the little girl back into his arms and embraced her, folding his body completely around her tiny figure, choking back sobs as silver tears ran down his face. "I know you don't understand me, Reina, but I'm so sorry….I wish I could be there with you- at the end. But I won't let them find you. I promise I won't."

Her parents had no idea what was going on, but they didn't have much choice in the unfolding of these events. A moment later, the man herded them back into the house and handed them his daughter one final time. "Please take care of her," he begged in a whisper so low that it sounded like a moan. "Make sure she's comfortable, and- talk to her, she likes to be talked to. Don't forget, her name is Reina. Keep her inside the house until this snowstorm ends. Stay with her, and….please, just let her die in peace." With that, the man stumbled away into the whirling darkness, deaf to her parents' cries to come back and explain himself. He vanished without a trace. In the years afterward, her parents would recall how perfectly flawless his skin was; how sharp his fingers were; and how he never shivered in the snow, despite the fact that his coat was torn up the sides in ragged strips. They would remember this and tell all of this to ten-year-old Reina as a curiosity. But they would never once suspect that he had been a vampire, because vampires did not exist.

Of course, Reina did not die. But it seemed, within the first few weeks of living with her new family, that she was going to. Her baffled parents followed the stranger's demand and did not leave the house until the next morning. Afterward, no matter how many doctor's visits they brought her to or how much nutrition-enriched supplements they gave her to drink, she simply seemed to be fading away. She did not drink anything willingly, and did not even seem to be hungry. She almost never responded to sensory stimuli, although she would occasionally open her eyes when talked to. It seemed like a cruel trick of fate to her poor parents, who had been trying for so long to conceive a child of their own, only to be told that they were infertile. Now the child that they had received was not going to last. Reina simply did not seem interested in living- no crying, no eating, no babbling, no laughter or clapping. Her body was always cold. One night, in the pediatrics emergency ward of the hospital, her heartbeat flatlined and her breathing stopped. Her parents pressed up against the incubator to say goodbye, barely able to touch her tiny hands amid the mass of tubes protruding from her frail body. As the monitor hummed on and ragged tears fell, the defeat of death seemed to settle over the room, heavy and constricting. Her mother remembered that there had been a tiny red flower placed atop the incubator by one of the nurses, and that it had been the brightest thing in the room. It seemed to grow even brighter as the skin of the infant beneath it paled and grew ashen- overwhelmingly, unbearably red.

Then Reina's brown eyes leaped open and she began to cry. Her face flushed and grew blotchy with color, and she kicked her little legs up and down indignantly against the coldness of the tubes. She screamed bright screams of energy and passion, and her open mouth was redder than the flower above it. For a long moment, no one in the room could do anything but stare.

It was a miracle, her parents said. Reina was glad to know that they thought of her survival in such terms. When she was first told this story, she had initially been concerned that her parents would not have wanted her so badly if they had known that their diagnosis of chronic infertility was incorrect, that in less than two years time, her mother would give birth to a healthy baby girl of her very own. But her parents had said it was all for the best, and that they would not have changed anything that had happened. They firmly believed that it was important for children to grow up with siblings around them, so that they could be properly socialized and learn to share and care for one another. In keeping with the precedent of names ending with A, they named the new baby Elisa, and moved out of their old home in the forest to a neighborhood with other houses and children around them. Reina often wondered whether the man who had left her at that house had ever returned to the place, only to find them gone. But there had never been any indication that anyone might be searching for her out there, and there was no way to contact him and tell him that his daughter had not died, after all. The question that bothered Reina the most, second only to the mysterious cause of her mother's death, was why he had been so convinced that his child was going to die in the first place. Aside from that, there were hundreds more. Who was he? Where had he come from? Who had her mother been? Why had her father been desperate enough to entrust his daughter to complete strangers? And what had he been so terrified of when he had arrived on her parents' doorstep that frozen night?

She could wonder all she wanted, but in the end, the truth had never become available to her. Devoid of answers, she had lived for twelve years of her life as a normal human girl, in a rather normal human way. She had gone to school and learned to read and made friends and got into fights and built tree forts with her sister in the backyard. She had travelled to summer camp and learned to ride horses and watched her mother fill the house with arts and crafts and discovered that her favorite food was chicken donburi. She had never had any indication that she was anything other than a regular human child. Although her mysterious past had bothered her a bit, she had been happy. And then-

The door to her bedroom swung open, and Reina quickly looked up, pulling herself out of her reverie. The light brown head of her younger sister poked into her room, reaching for a hair bow on the bedside table. She started to see Reina herself lying across the bed. "Reina! What are you doing here? Why aren't you at school?" she whispered, sliding in the room so their mother would not hear them talking.

"I could ask you the same thing. And you were going to grab my hair tie, weren't you?" Reina smirked up at her sister. Elisa grimaced down at her.

"I was- that's not the point! I'm here because I'm sick. I'm just about to leave for a doctor's visit with Mom. Does she know you're here?"

"No. I just got in." Reina shook her head, her brown hair dragging messily across the bedcovers. "I don't want to deal with school today. I just got attacked by a bunch of vampires at the _other_ school. I'm not in a good mood."

"No way! I thought Cross Academy was supposed to be a peaceful place!" Elisa protested, closing the door and coming to sit beside her sister on the bed. Her hair was a lighter color than Reina's, and not as thick. Her face was differently-shaped as well. No one who didn't know them would have guessed that they were sisters. Elisa was pretty in her own right, but she had long ago come to terms with her older sister's gorgeous appearance, especially once she'd found out the reason behind it.

Reina grunted and rolled onto her back. "'Supposed to be,' is the key phrase there, Elis. You can legislate all you want, but you can't make something happen if people don't have the will to obey." She didn't understand what Elisa was staring at until she realized that she had not yet changed out of her charred school uniform. "Oh, and I also got hit by a fireball. Damn expensive uniform is completely ruined."

Elisa shook her head in slow disbelief. "No one has school days like you do, Rei. No one."

"Well, I should hope not. That would mean the misfortune was spreading."

"Are you okay?" Her sister's fragile finger brushed up against the perfect skin exposed beneath the burned cloth.

"Yeah, it hurt like hell at the time, but I'm fine now. I finished healing over in the car. I would have left sooner, but that bastard Kuran held me up."

Elisa snorted at the name. "I find it hard to believe that anyone could be as terrible as you describe him. I kind of want to meet this guy."

"You shouldn't." Reina declared. "You'd wind up wanting to punch him. Presumptuous idiot…." She paused because she did not want to get into the entire story of what Kaname had said to her. She had not yet mentioned Zero to her family. Removed from the vampire world as they were, she wasn't sure how to explain to them the terrible curse that Zero was under, and the even more terrible fate that awaited him if she refused to shed more of her blood on Cross Academy grounds. She wasn't sure if they would be all right with it. They loved her. They had never even met Zero.

"Elisa, are you coming?" she heard her mother call faintly from downstairs.

Her sister straightened up on the bed. "I won't tell Mom you're here. Rest before you have to go back there, okay?"

"I will," she murmured, giving the younger girl a fang-toothed smile. "Take the hairbow."

"Oooooh, thanks! See you later!" Elisa grabbed the bow off the dresser and dashed out of the room before their mother could become suspicious. Alone in her sun-bathed room once more, Reina listened to the thumping of her sister's footsteps on the stairs. She didn't seem very sick, but then, Reina was not one to judge others for skipping school. She heard the quiet bump of the door closing, and then the house was silent. Reina stood up and closed her window completely before falling back onto the bed and re-burying her face in the blanket nest. Her thoughts became blurry as she drifted off to sleep.

She had been given twelve years in which to be normal. But on unlucky number thirteen, everything had changed….

**I hope that was all right! I thought it was about time to delve into a little of Reina's background as a character. I tried to do it in an interesting way. :)**

**I want to put a question out there for anyone who might know the answer. Since I've been reading manga and watching anime for awhile, I've pretty much got the whole honorifics thing down (-san, -sama, -kun, -chan, and whatnot.) But one thing that I still don't understand is the issue of using 'first names' versus 'family names.' Is it polite in Japanese culture to call a person by their family name, and what sort of relationship would have to be established between two people in order for them to address each other by their first names? I was a bit confused in some of the scenes when I wasn't sure if Kaname should be calling the night class by their first or family names.**

**Finally, please review! I don't have that many reviews yet, so I'm kind of a sad panda...but reviews will make me feel more confident! **


	9. Zero Sum

**The story returns! :) Thanks for being patient with me, guys.**

Reina procrastinated until the very last second before she had to leave for the Academy that evening. This time, it went beyond her usual desire to avoid the place entirely. She was a little bit afraid as she climbed into her car and pulled back out of her driveway. She knew that there was news waiting for her in the headmaster's office, and that it would be bad news no matter what- her only options were between something bad and something worse. If her blood had had the effect that Kaien Cross had hoped for, she would have to continue this cycle of bleeding out on a regular basis, and would gain another unwanted bond attaching her to the Academy. If it had not worked….she wasn't sure what she would find. The Academy silent, Zero gone, Kaien Cross standing in front of his empty desk with wet and blurred spectacles. She didn't think she could deal with that, and as she drove along the road, she couldn't help but insensibly hope for the pain over the silence.

The Headmaster had asked her to come early, so Reina pulled into the clearing half an hour before classes were due to start. She did not have to change first, since her uniform had been decimated by a fireball, so she headed straight up to the administrative building in her street clothes. There were still groups of Day Class students lingering about, but she did not bother with them. Contrary to the way she had entered last time, Reina practically tiptoed through the doors and paced quietly along the halls, flicking her fingers nervously. When she reached Kaien Cross's office, she stood in front of his door for almost two whole minutes, clenching and unclenching her fists. Finally she raised her hand and knocked, telling herself firmly that she'd done what she could, and whatever happened afterward would simply have to be accepted.

The door swung open, and Kaien Cross was there; he was beaming. Reina's shoulders instantly relaxed. They would not have to face the worst, after all. "It worked?" she inquired.

He nodded, and for a few moments it seemed like his joy was too expansive for words. "It did. It did! It worked! It's going to be all right!" Reina thought that the last statement was going a bit far, but still she stepped forward into the Headmaster's arms and allowed him to hug her. This was the best she could have hoped for, and she could not find it within herself to feel displeased. After a moment, he drew back, hands still on her shoulders. "I can't thank you enough, Reina. All this time- I've been so _worried_…." He ducked his head and brushed his spectacles back up his nose, smiling vaguely. Reina suddenly felt the urge to comfort him.

"I….I'm glad that….he has more time. And for you…." Mentally, Reina smacked herself. She couldn't have thought of a better comforting statement than that disjointed mess?

Kaien Cross drew a deep breath, and smiled in her direction. "I'm going to let him rest for a few more days so he can get used to the effects of your blood. But I do believe that he should be able to resume a normal life- well, as normal as it can be-"

He cut off suddenly and stared behind her. Reina turned her head halfway to see the diminutive figure of Yuki Cross standing there in the corridor, looking flustered. She was breathing harder than normal, something that only Reina's keen ears could detect. They all stared at each other for a moment, and to Reina's surprise, Yuki spoke first. "Father," she said, tilting her head, "we need to talk. I've just been to see Zero, and….we need to talk."

Reina stepped back from Kaien Cross and gave him a slight nod. From the expression on his daughter's face, it looked like the game was up. She personally thought that he should have told Yuki about Zero from the beginning, and avoided this extra layer of secrecy. But she didn't want to get in the middle of their father-daughter business. "I'm going to head out, then."

"All right," the headmaster said, looking a little bit flustered himself. "I have some business later tonight, but I'll need to meet with you again soon- maybe tomorrow-?"

Reina nodded and breezed out past Yuki, doing her best to keep her expression nonchalant. She wondered how the tiny prefect had found out about Zero. Perhaps he had just come right out and told her. Reina didn't know Zero very well at all, so she could not estimate whether he was the sort of person who would do that or not. Either way, she was grateful to have gotten out of that awkward situation.

Her meeting with the headmaster cut short, Reina wandered along the side of the academic building, wondering how to best kill time before she had to go to class. By the time she had ducked out of sight of the fifth group of giggling night class girls, the library seemed like a better option by far. Reina located a ground floor window, checked inside and out for any nearby human presences, and then slid her claws underneath the latch, pulling the glass pane up with barely a sound. She swung herself up and somersaulted smoothly inside, landing in the middle of a quiet room with bookshelves lining the edges and tables filling the middle.

"Hey!"

She almost jumped back out the window at the unexpected voice. From the other side of a bookshelf, a very bright figure dressed all in white and topped with a golden mop of hair advanced toward her. She recognized the face of Takuma Ichijo, the vampire who had tried to 'save' her last night. She gave him an annoyed glare. "What?"

"I wasn't expecting to find you in here. I was just about to go to the administrative building and try to head you off," he said smoothly, coming a few more steps closer. She noticed that he held a wide white box in his arms.

Reina raised her eyebrow. "And why would you be doing that?" she asked sardonically. "Is there another attack planned for tonight?"

"Goodness, no! No one in the Night Class would dare do something like that right after Kaname told them not to!" Takuma shook his head, running a hand through his gossamer hair. "He was furious, you know. It was really scary. He actually suspended everyone involved in that incident from school for a few days. Even Aido, after he recovered. He's just fine now." Takuma said in a reassuring tone, although Reina had not asked about Aido and did not particularly care how he was. On the other hand, the news that she would not have to put up with Kaname Kuran's little fan club for a few days made her want to grin, although she restrained herself.

"So what do you want, then?"

Takuma hefted the box into his other arm. "Well, I was hoping to catch you before you got to class today and give you this." He put the box down on the table, and Reina eyed it suspiciously. He laughed, continuing his bizarrely friendly conversation. "Don't worry, Reina-san. I've already said that I mean you no harm. It's just this, see?" He lifted the lid off, and Reina took in the sight of a pristine white uniform, perfectly folded and nestled amongst white tissue paper. She looked at it, then looked at Takuma. The silence in the library stretched out to uncomfortable lengths.

"….And why are you giving me a Night Class uniform?"

"Well, I know that your other one was destroyed by Akatsuki yesterday, so…."

"Where the heck did you get this from, anyway? They don't sell them in the student store. My first one just-" Reina closed her mouth tightly and glowered at the blithely smiling boy in front of her. She had been about to say that her first uniform had just showed up at her house in the middle of the night, in a box quite like this one, and her father had tripped over it the next morning when he'd gone out to get the newspaper. But a story like that would inform Takuma that she had a house and a father, neither of which would make her position any safer. The less these people knew about her daytime life, the better.

Takuma rubbed the back of his head, for the first time seeming a little flustered. "I think they're custom-made, quite exclusive….and I'm not entirely sure where they come from. To be honest, I didn't buy it. Kaname did, but he was worried that you wouldn't wear it if you knew it was from him, so he told me to pretend that it was my gift. But, um, I forgot to ask him where he'd got it from…." He laughed a little at himself, and Reina stared hard at the uniform, her suspicions flaring within her. The bell rang above their heads, signifying that they had ten minutes left to get to class. Takuma pushed the box across the table toward her, smiling again. "Anyway, I hope you have better luck in this uniform than you had in your last one, Reina-san. I really am glad you weren't hurt last night. I kept thinking that I was probably too late, that I should have acted sooner….but then we got there and you were still standing, and I was relieved."

Reina could detect the sincerity in his voice. _He really doesn't act like a vampire,_ she thought in perplexity. Showing his emotions, smiling all the time, being _honest,_ of all things…. Awkwardly, she shoved her hands deep into the pockets of her jeans and grumbled out "I don't need your help. But I know that you were trying to….help. So….yeah. Well. Have a good night."

"You too, Reina-san," the blonde boy said. And he offered her his hand.

Reina's first instinctual thought was to turn away and pretend she didn't see the hand. However, she hesitated for a split-second too long to make that possible. Very slowly, as if her arm contained grinding gears, she reached over the table and let her palm touch his. She allowed him to do the shaking, and when it was over she felt immensely relieved. But stranger still was the fact that for the first time in her history of facing vampires, she found herself unable to summon even a trace of malice into her eyes or her mind.

Now flustered herself, Reina hoisted the box over her shoulder and nearly ran out of the library, making a quick beeline into the ladies' room on the ground floor. Still in a state of confusion, she held up the newly pressed uniform and inspected it carefully, although she had no idea what she was looking for. A part of her was all for destroying the white fabric on principle of knowing who it had come from, but she figured that such an act would be a bit juvenile, as justified as it might be. She had no doubt that Kaname Kuran was up to something- buying her a uniform, of all things!- but she could not attribute any nefarious motives to Takuma. Takuma, who was the pureblood's right hand, she reminded herself as she changed into the perfectly cut fabric and headed out to class.

Reina spent most of first period wondering what was happening in the administrative building between the headmaster and his daughter. Her thoughts occasionally drifted to Zero, and then drifted away again. She felt uncomfortable in her new uniform, although it was by all accounts no different than her last one. Her only satisfaction was in looking down to the front row and seeing five empty spaces where her attackers would normally be sitting. School would be much more relaxing without them here, which was just what she needed at a time like this.

At the end of the class, Reina hung out warily in the back as the other students filed out. She didn't want to walk past Kaname in case he tried to talk to her again, or even worse, made some sort of comment about the uniform. However, her uneasiness was assuaged after a moment; the pureblood leaned down and spoke into the ear of his only remaining follower, and a moment later, Kaname and Takuma had stood up and quickly exited the classroom. Delighted, Reina strode out the door and noted the silence of the grounds down below. All of the other students were heading for their second period classes, but she no longer had a class to attend. A strange feeling of solitude took over the half-blood girl, and she wandered contentedly down the stairs and out of the building, coming to rest on the rim of the fountain beside the gardens. She was in a strangely approachable mood, probably because of her conversation with that damn Takuma. It was a good thing that there was no one around to approach her, or she might have actually considered talking to them. The running of the fountain filled up her senses, and Reina thought of the underground fountain with the colored water in which she rested every month, gaining her strength back after bleeding out. She wondered what the world would look like from the bottom of this fountain, clear waves and swan wings outstretched over the basin. She was almost tempted to roll into the water and find out, but the fact that she had on a brand new uniform was enough to convince her pragmatic mind to stay on the ledge, even if it had been given by _him._ She wondered once again whom he'd commissioned to make these uniforms. Perhaps the headmaster would know.

"Hey!"

It was the second 'hey!' that had caused her to jump that night. This time Reina almost fell into the water. She straightened up, furiously telling herself that she needed to keep better track of what was going on around her. There was someone on the opposite side of the sheen of water flowing down from the swan's stone beak. Although the water masked his figure, the raw aggression in his tone revealed his identity. "Hey _what,_ Zero Kiryu?"

He moved around the side of the fountain, scowling deeply. "You're not supposed to be- oh. It's you." There was a flustered pause as both vampires stared at each other. Then Zero sighed and dropped his gun hand. "You're still not going back to your class?"

"Not tonight, not tomorrow, not ever. And I wasn't doing anything out here," Reina insisted, annoyed that her peace had been disturbed.

Zero's mouth hardened into a thin line. "I thought I sensed an unfamiliar presence on the grounds. You haven't seen anyone you don't know, have you?"

Reina shook her head, frowning slightly herself. Come to think of it, she had detected a sort of oddness in the air before, but she had assumed that it was Zero, his vampiric presence still not fully ingrained in her mind. "I know that Kaname Kuran has banned some of his lackeys from school for a few days. It's possible that one of them might have snuck back into campus, but I think we would recognize their presence since we've felt it before."

"Why would Kuran do that?" the silver-haired boy demanded, whipping his head around to stare in the direction of the Moon dorm. He was evidently completely uninformed of the events of the past 24 hours. Reina could imagine that he'd probably spent them unconscious in his bed, slowly coming back from the brink. She thought about lying in order to avoid uncomfortable explanations, but she figured that Zero would find out soon enough, anyway. He was still a Guardian, after all.

"They attacked me last night as I was heading back to my car. Dunno what the hell they were planning to do- they never got that far. Long story short, we beat each other up a bit and then Kuran showed up and sent them back to the Moon dorm. Taku- Ichijo-san told me tonight that they'd been suspended," the brown-haired girl relayed, rolling her eyes. The fountain gurgled behind her.

Zero scrutinized her closely for a moment. "Why would they attack you? They don't know, do they-"

"No, they don't," Reina replied shortly. "It has nothing to do with that. We just don't get along, that's all. And hey- aren't you supposed to be resting?"

The guardian shrugged, coming a step closer to the fountain. "I'm better now."

There was another still silence as the two vampires reclined feet apart, each thinking of the many implications of that statement. If Reina shut out all her linear thoughts, she could feel the flow of her blood in this strange boy's veins. The sensation freaked her out, and she did the best she could to push it away from her mind. She nodded. "Mmmm-hmmm. The headmaster told me. It's good that you're….stable."

"Now that I am, I want you to answer my question," Zero stated, coming to sit down on the fountain's ledge, leaving at least two yards between them. "Why?"

"Oh, for goodness sakes!" Reina huffed, brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes. "I don't understand why you have to ask that. Look, I may be as prickly as a pear cactus, but I like to think that I'm not evil. And allowing someone to lose their sanity in such a horrible way when I have the power to prevent it _is_ evil."

There was another brief silence. "So you feel sorry for me," Zero stated flatly, clenching his fist.

"A little," Reina admitted, unwilling to give him a patronizing answer. "I know how it feels to turn into a vampire against your will- and let's just say I appreciate that you've had it rough. Anyway, you're not the enemy."

"Who _is_ the enemy?" the gray-haired boy asked bluntly.

Without pausing, Reina pointed a sharp finger up at the looming academic building. "_Them._"

"You don't like them," Zero murmured, "but they're your own kind-"

"They are _not _my kind. We've been over this, damnit. Purebloods and aristocrats are _here,_ and I'm over _here,_" Reina snapped, waving her arms in different directions. "We're completely different."

"But your blood is the same-"

"No, no, no. Our blood has different abilities. And while they go around sucking the life out of humans, I don't drink blood at all. So it's not the same."

"You don't drink blood?" Zero asked, surprised. "Then how do you sustain yourself?"

"I eat food," Reina said as though this should have been the most obvious thing in the world. "I mean, I could drink blood if I wanted to, I suppose. But I don't _need_ to. I don't really need a lot of food, either. My energy just kind of keeps on running, who knows where it comes from. Kaien Cross says that my body operates like a perpetual motion machine."

"And do you sleep?" the guardian inquired, frowning as though studying an unfamiliar text.

Reina shrugged. "Barely. I don't really need to. Honestly, I eat and sleep a lot more than is strictly necessary for me, because I like having interesting dreams and food tastes good. But in terms of sustaining myself, my physiology operates on a freakin' _bizarre_ equation. Very little food plus very little sleep somehow equals power." Suddenly aware that she might have said too much, Reina dropped her eyes and re-directed her focus to the thing that had been disturbing her earlier. "Ah, and speaking of vampirism….from what I saw earlier, I think your little prefect friend is on to you."

"I know. I let her find out." Zero paused for a moment, then shook his head. "I couldn't lie to Yuki. She's been my friend ever since….since I came here." Reina nodded, quietly wondering what her own human friends' reactions would be if they ever discovered the truth about her. The silver-haired boy tilted his head and bit his lip, the first hint of a fang showing below his mouth. "Why, what did she say?"

"She didn't say much of anything to me. I was just talking to the headmaster, and then she showed up behind me and said that she'd just been to see you and she needed to talk to him. I don't know if they're still talking." Reina indicated toward the administrative building just as the bell rang to signify the end of the second class period of the night. From inside the academic hall, white-clad vampires began to flit about the railings and stairways, making their way to the places where they would spend their hour-long break. Zero stood up, and Reina reached for her bookbag silently.

"Maybe I'd better go and….but-" Zero glanced between the administrative and academic buildings agitatedly, and this time Reina could tell what was bothering him. There was a definite strange presence in the air, something completely separate from Zero himself. Stranger still, the presence felt homogenous, but it did not seem to be centered in on one location. Reina's eyes darted around suspiciously, and her fingers plucked at her uniform as she and Zero held still beside the gurgling fountain, trying to track the location of the presence. The vampire boy hissed, and all of a sudden she heard a high-pitched laugh behind her and whirled around.

Despite her rational thoughts to the contrary, Reina had always been a firm believer in first impressions. She almost never forgot an initial meeting, and she tended to pay extra close attention to people upon first encountering them. Aside from that, she had learned over the years that instinct could be a better judge of character than reputation. For these reasons, it took her less than five seconds to determine that the lithe, gray-haired girl with the congenial smile and the freshly-pressed Night Class uniform who was strolling along the sidewalk parallel to them was the equivalent of some very, very unfortunate news indeed.

**Ah, and the plot thickens...**

**I hope that was all right! I was kind of worried that this chapter would be boring, since it's basically just a set of conversations that I needed to happen. The next chapter will have more action/intrigue! :)**


	10. Knowledge Is Power

**A/N: Wow! I think this is the longest chapter I've written so far. I hope you like it!_  
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**Reviews make me eager to write more. If this is something that you want, please review! :)**

_Bizarre_ was the only word Reina could think of to express what the last few nights at Cross Academy had been like. Well, distressing was another one that would probably come close. And foreboding. Not that all her nights at Cross Academy weren't bizarre, distressing, and foreboding, but the last few had been especially so. And it all had to do with the new student with the gray hair and languid eyes.

Maria Kurenai; that was her name, apparently. She was supposedly in bad health (could a vampire be in bad health? Reina wondered,) and had been resting at her villa in the mountains while she prepared herself to transfer to the Academy. She was an aristocrat; she was in both of Reina's classes; and besides that, she was intensely weird. That was Reina's evaluation of her, anyway. She had never actually spoken with the new girl, as Maria, like all the other vampires, seemed content to completely ignore the presence of the lowly common vampire among them. But she watched Maria from a distance, and the foreboding feeling which she felt emanating from the girl continued to put her on edge. Even more frustrating was the fact that she had nothing concrete to base it upon. The girl's behavior was not particularly threatening or suspicious; in fact, it was almost the opposite. Maria Kurenai spoke in a high-pitched voice which belied a kind of innocence, and laughed often- far more often than a regular vampire would, actually. She was almost- Reina hated to think it- kind of _perky._

But there was something that Zero had said which had tipped the balance of her usual indifference. The words which he had inadvertently uttered as they stood by the fountain on the night they first saw Maria; two words which made absolutely no sense. As he had looked at the newcomer girl with wild eyes, Zero had pushed his hand inside his jacket to where the Bloody Rose gun was located and whispered lowly, the painful pressure in his voice fissurizing every syllable of the name _Shizuka Hio._ Reina had to blink before she realized what he'd said, and then she turned and looked at him in utter confusion. The girl in front of them did not have the feeling of a pureblood- what was he doing, why was he…. Just when Reina was really starting to wonder if she would have to stop him from yanking out his gun and massacring the new Night Class student, the girl smiled at them and gave a tiny, disturbing laugh. For a moment, everything was still. When Reina looked again, Zero's eyes were still raging, but he looked suddenly confused, less sure of himself. He could surely sense it too- this girl was not a pureblood. She could not be that woman, Shizuka Hio. And yet, even so….

After Zero had stormed away and the new girl had skipped off the catch up with the other, more quiet Night Class students, Reina had stood alone beside the fountain for quite awhile, listening to the wind.

Reina knew very well that the gray-haired girl was not the infamous pureblood whose name Zero had whispered with such deafening certainty. She did not know why he had said that name, or what he had meant. Even so, figuring that out was now the least of her worries. Because as impossible, irrational, and unbelievable as it seemed, her senses were whispering to her again, telling no lies but only speaking in riddles. And the truth that they told her was that somehow, in a way which she couldn't explain, Maria Kurenai was not alone on the Cross Academy grounds. There was someone else there as well, someone whose presence felt enough like hers to almost indicate a twin- except that according to the official records, Maria Kurenai was the only transfer student who had come to the Academy. What was even more confusing, the 'other presence,' as Reina thought of it, did not have the fullness and vibrancy of a complete other person. It was a very faint sensation on the wind, too vague to even trace its location. She was only able to detect it at all because of her extraordinary senses. And her senses had been right about Zero, after all- it seemed it would be foolish not to trust them once again.

After about a week of silently keeping her eye on the Maria Kurenai during classroom hours, Reina had tried to voice her concerns to Headmaster Cross. Most unhelpfully, he had told her that Kaname was in charge of the information concerning the Night Class vampires, and that she should ask him if she wanted to know about the new transfer student. Reina didn't know if he was being honest, or if this was just another of his diabolical schemes to get her to talk to Kaname. Either way, it wasn't going to work. She would find out what she needed to know in her own way.

All of this explained why Reina was at that very moment crossing the bridge which led to the Moon Dorm in broad daylight. For the first time in more than a full year, the half-blood girl was at Cross Academy in the middle of the day, when the humans were out. She was wearing her street clothes, and she had waited until all the classes were in session before slipping out of her car and making for the stone-cut bridge. She could not be officially identified as a Night Class student, but sometimes very astute humans could tell anyway. It was the beauty. She did not want to be distracted by eager humans. She was on a mission to find out information- but not from Kaname. She was going to talk to Takuma. And she was not going to ask him about Maria Kurenai.

As Reina approached the gatekeeper, she was surprised to see someone already standing in front of him, someone short and rather skinny. The half-blood girl didn't know whether to feel dismayed or resigned as she strode up to the small figure of Yuki Cross, who was looking at her with big, brown eyes. _She knows the truth now,_ Reina thought, and felt suddenly awkward about how the younger prefect might have taken the news that Reina had been collaborating with her father to conceal her identity from the rest of the school. She cleared her throat to get the gatekeeper's attention, and the man silently nodded her through. He recognized her instantly as a vampire, something which made Reina even more uncomfortable about being here.

"Hello, Reina-san." The older girl was almost relieved when Yuki finally broke the awkward silence. She nodded in return. "Hello."

The two brunettes hesitantly fell into step together as they started out toward the Moon Dorm. Yuki tried a curious smile. "I didn't know that you stayed at the Moon Dorm during the day, Reina-san. The Headmaster said you lived off-campus."

"I do," Reina replied brusquely. Yuki stopped smiling and looked away, and Reina wondered if she'd sounded too harsh. "I mean, I don't live here. On campus. In the Moon Dorm. I'm just stopping by quickly. I have some business here. A small matter."

"So do I," Yuki said, nodding. "Only it's not really a small matter…." She bit her lip softly. "You're in the Night class, Reina-san….and you're –well, I mean- I don't suppose you'd know anything about what Kaname-sama is thinking when it comes to transferring Zero there?"

"Kaname and I are _not friends._" Reina snapped overly loudly, then forced herself to keep her temper in check. It was probably just unlucky chance that the shy prefect was hitting on all of her sore spots. Yuki Cross was far too innocent for Reina to believe she could be doing it on purpose. "I was not aware that Zero was considering transferring to the Night Class….although I suppose it makes sense."

"Well, he's not. That's the problem. Zero hates vampires- he's not considering going to school with them. Other people are considering it for him, but I think it would be really bad for him, so that's why I'm-um-here. To see Kaname-sama," Yuki rattled off, glancing nervously at the building looming ahead of them. Reina was surprised on several counts, the least of which being that Yuki thought Kaname was the sort of person to approach about something like this. She flexed her fingers gently, letting them round themselves into tiny points at the very end.

"I hate to point it out, but if your friend hates vampires so much, he's got himself a real problem."

"I know." Yuki said quickly. "That's what I've been thinking….ever since I found out. It's just- poor Zero. All this time, I didn't know…. He's been putting himself through all that torture on top of what he already…." She paused. They were at the bottom of the steps which led to the Moon Dorm entrance, the breeze blowing gently around them. Reina could sense that Yuki was hedging around a certain topic, something about Zero, but she kept her face politely indifferent. It was not fitting for her to ask prying questions about Zero's personal life, or Yuki's, for that matter. Her job was simply to provide the blood and leave it at that.

"Actually- there's something I want to say to you," Yuki half-blurted out, wrapping her hands around each other in front of her Cross Academy skirt. "I meant to say it before, but I was so surprised, finding out about Zero and then finding out about you- I got distracted. But….thank you. Really, thank you for giving your blood to Zero. I'm not really sure how you do what you do….I don't know much about half-blood powers….but Zero is my oldest friend. Having him here means everything to me. So thank you for protecting his life, Reina-san."

The little prefect bowed slightly, and Reina felt a bit flustered. She wasn't sure what to do with so much emotion, so much gratitude. "It's fine. Don't worry about it. Thank you for not freaking out when you found out I was a half-blood."

"You're still you," Yuki shrugged, beginning to walk up the steps. "Just like Zero's still Zero. I just understand a lot more now about certain things that I didn't before." She paused, and looked over her shoulder. "And I know how important it is to keep the secret. I won't say anything." Reina stood still for a moment, then followed Yuki slowly up to the doors.

The first floor lounge of the Moon Dorm was dark and quiet, but not entirely empty. Sprawled out on one of the richly dressed couches in the center of the room was a tousled blonde head and a languid body. Clear blue eyes opened as the two outsiders walked through the doors, and Hanabusa Aido stood up slowly, wincing at the sunlight they let in. Yuki smiled naively and stepped forward, and Reina felt the sudden urge to pull her back. She had heard stories being traded among the other Night Class students about Aido, including that he was not as fastidious as the others about following the rules against drinking human blood. When Aido saw who was following Yuki in, his expression quickly changed from annoyance to dark anger. "Why are you here?" he snapped, narrowing his eyes at Reina.

The half-blood girl scoffed, brushing aside his glare. "It doesn't concern you, Aido. I'm certainly not here to see _you._"

He hissed as he stepped closer to her, twitching his fingers at his side; the fleshy digits were rapidly morphing into unyielding claws. "You poisoned me with some sort of serum on that night. I don't know how you _dare-_"

"Oh, I dare. I dare very much. I'll do it again anytime. Although next time I suggest you look before you leap, so you won't look as stupid when you fall."

"You dirty low-breed!" Aido growled in a voice that would have been frightening if she had been a human. Yuki took an alarmed step backward and bumped into her. "You might as well turn around and get your ugly face out of here right now, because I won't let you get within twenty feet of Kaname-sama's door. He's resting. As if bothering him at school wasn't bad enough…."

"I'm not here to see your precious pureblood," Reina snapped scornfully.

"_I_ am." Yuki's steady voice from behind her surprised her somewhat. Although the little human was obviously intimidated by Aido, she seemed to grow braver at the mention of Kaname.

The blonde vampire didn't look any more pleased at this announcement. "And why do you think you can just waltz in here and see Kaname-sama whenever you please?"

Yuki flushed slightly, inclining her head toward the ground. "I-I don't think he'll mind. It's very important. And Kaname-sama is kind…."

"To you, yes," Aido replied as Reina laughed lowly in her throat. "I can't understand why he cares so much about you, shows you so much consideration. _Both_ of you." He declared, sweeping his eyes across the pair of them. "It's really….pissing me off, actually…."

He took a step forward, and Reina prepared to spit out an acidic reply. She nearly jumped out of her skin when Yuki cried out very close to her ear. The half-blood girl automatically assumed a fighting stance while glancing up and down the little prefect, trying to assess where she was hurt. She didn't seem to be injured, and there was no smell of blood, but something clear and shining had attached itself to her foot and was crawling slowly up her leg. In another moment, Reina recognized the crackle of forming ice.

"Hanabusa Aido, let her go!" Reina demanded, feeling her stomach begin to twist in knots. Aido smirked and took another step forward, his ice crawling further up Yuki's leg, immobilizing her above the kneecap. Yuki struggled and gasped at the cold, her shaking hands reaching behind her to clamp onto Reina's arms in order to keep her balance. Reina stepped forward as well, blocking off Aido's advance with her shoulder. The small prefect was the very same height as her younger sister.

"Tell me…." Aido demanded lowly, staring straight past Reina into the eyes of his prey, "What are you to Kaname-sama? Why does he care about you so much?"

Reina wouldn't have dignified the pretentious idiot with an answer, but Yuki seemed to be hoping she could still salvage the situation. "It's not like that!" she insisted fearfully, still tugging at her captured leg. "Kaname-sama saved my life ten years ago from a vampire who had gone berserk. That's why…."

"Oh?" Aido raised his eyebrow in surprise, but he did not dissipate his ice. Reina would have been surprised as well, if she had not been furiously debating the best way to extricate Yuki and herself from this situation. She could destroy Aido's ice mentally, but that would require power beyond the level of an aristocrat. If she displayed that power, her cover would be blown. _We should never have come here,_ Reina thought, angry with herself for getting involved like an idiot. Then she glanced at Aido's golden-blonde hair, and an idea fluttered its way to the surface of her mind.

The vampire glanced searchingly over Yuki, seeming to decide that she was telling the truth. "That still doesn't justify it…." he murmured in dissatisfaction before turning his poison eyes on Reina. "And you?"

There was a pause, a beat of silence in which both vampires seemed to understand that this would not end until one of them destroyed the other. This was about revenge, and Yuki was a casualty. Aido made the first move. He took a breath, and instantly his ice swept out across the wooden floor like a crystal tsunami, freezing everything it touched. Reina had no time to do anything but leap in the air, the ice following her and drawing crazy, tree-like formations in the middle of the room. Yuki shrieked as she was engulfed up to her neck, and Reina's focus narrowed down to one thing; she had to hit Aido hard enough to break his control. She hooked her arm around one of the ice spires and slid down it, landing in the corner by the empty fireplace. Before Aido could box her in, Reina pushed off and shot across the newly frozen floor with inhuman grace, dragging her clawed hand against the wall. A second later, she had reached the other side and every curtain in front of every window had been torn away from the glass. Golden sunlight blazed into the room and lit up the ice in a blinding display of brightness.

Reina knew that Aido was an aristocrat, and as such, sunlight could not seriously hurt him, not even sunlight magnified by his own ice. However, the pampered little princeling was clearly not used to being uncomfortable, and the sudden appearance of the light shocked him. He howled and threw his arms over his face, stumbling back into the banister. Reina could hear Yuki's frantic grunts as the prefect strained to get her body free, and while Aido was stunned, she pushed off from the wall and careened in for the final blow. She slammed into Aido and they rolled over once. Reina felt a bolt of fire sear across her stomach, from her naval to the bottom of her breast, but she didn't look down to see the blood. She grabbed Aido by the lapels of his shirt and leaned into him as hard as she could, shoving him against the nearest wall. The next few seconds were a bit surreal. One moment Aido and the wall were there, the next moment the plaster had caved in as easily as the opening of a mailbox slot, and he disappeared into the building's inner darkness with a tremendous _crack._ Behind her, someone screamed. Reina whirled around just in time to see the ice spires collapsing into spears and pointed shards, the ice floor cracking as if by an earthquake, and a small, short-haired figure flailing about desperately as the ice sloughed off of her, about to fall into a forest of glassine needles. Reina growled hysterically. "God dammit!"

The next few moments were rather unpleasant, and if Reina had been given an option, she would have preferred to forget them forever. They involved diving through a merciless shower of icicles, hitting the ground with a burst of blood and a tearing of flesh, and tumbling uncontrollably across the floor with a terrified human wrapped protectively under her body. When they finally hit the opposite wall and everything stopped moving, Reina wanted to just lie there and go to sleep for a while. But she couldn't close her eyes- Yuki was gasping for breath and seizing in her arms, it felt like Reina had dislocated all four of her limbs, and the clumsy bumps and gratings which she heard coming from within the gaping hole in the opposite wall meant that Aido had not been completely knocked out, either. They had to get out of here. Later on, Reina would fight Aido until they were both either satisfied or unconscious, but not while there was a fragile human in the room. Reina pushed herself up on one arm, and suddenly there were new noises coming from the second floor of the Moon Dorm. Panting, she turned her head just far enough to see Kaname Kuran running down the stairs into the battle zone. Of all the things she could have thought in that moment, it crossed her mind that she had never seen the pureblood run before. He stood at the bottom for a moment, assessing the damage with red eyes. With a slamming of doors and a flurry of feet, he was joined by the rest of his loyal followers, as well as a sizeable group of other Night Class students. For the first time in her entire existence, Reina felt something like glad to see them, as long as it meant that the fight was over.

Everyone was talking at once, but they all stopped as their sensitive ears picked up the sound of two ragged breaths coming from the corner of the room. The next moment, Kaname's tousled figure was bending over them, and it was as if he couldn't see the utter mayhem all around him. His eyes were glued to the tiny human in Reina's arms. "_Yuki!_ Reina, is she hurt? Whose blood is this?"

Reina sighed, and winced as the pureblood insisted on gripping her shoulders and turning her over. Two dozen pairs of red vampire eyes were staring their way. "Mine, bastard."

"All right. We'll take care of it. Let her go now, Reina, we'll take care of her. Let her go, Yuki. It'll be all right."

With much prodding from Kaname, the two females released each other and Reina allowed the pureblood to carry the shivering human away in his arms. He vanished up the stairs, holding her with great care, and Reina would have rolled her eyes if she hadn't been bleeding from the forehead. Just typical, go off and leave the wounded one behind. The other aristocrats were still staring openly at her across the sunlit floor, but it was apparent that none of them wanted to pain themselves by crossing through the light to reach her. Reina didn't need them, anyway. She lay still in the shadowed corner and waited for her wounds to heal, using all of her concentration to keep her half-blood essence held back within her skin. Now was not the time, not now….she finally allowed herself to close her eyes.

Reina jumped when she felt someone pulling at her hair, and almost slapped him before she realized that it was Takuma. The pale-haired vampire sat back on his haunches, squinting slightly against the uncomfortable light of the sun. His hands working deftly, he dragged her wild mess of hair away from her face and neck so he could look over them more thoroughly. He was speaking, but it took a moment for his words to register. "….Reina? Reina-san? I know it probably hurts, but you can't just lay there, Reina-san. You need to get up and run some water over those cuts….get some new clothes….can you sit up? Reina-san?"

More to stop Takuma's prodding than for anything else, Reina heaved herself into a sitting position. She could feel her body begin to heat up as it began the process of healing itself, the lighter-colored vampire hovering near her side. Reina blinked and looked around, finally understanding the blatant alarm on everyone's faces. The lounge looked like nothing she could ever imagine. Furniture was thrown over and every window-curtain was ripped down. There was a long gash running all the way along the west wall, and a huge hole punched in the north wall. Shards of ice were everywhere, and so was her blood. There was blood frozen in ice and ice covered in blood. And then there was her, as well; she must look a real wreck. Just then, another loud _crack _rang out, and Reina leapt to her feet in alarm and stared over toward the wall. Kaname Kuran and come back down the stairs, and he seemed to have announced his presence by slapping the face of his renegade subordinate as hard as he could. Aido, who had just crawled out of the wall, was clutching his cheek with a look of wounded shock; Kaname was standing over him, looking as though he would never smile again. Reina was sorry that she'd missed seeing the blow delivered. Her body chose that moment to remember its own pains, and she staggered against the wall. She felt a long-fingered hand grip her shoulder from behind. "Reina-san, would you kill me if I tried to carry you up the stairs?"

She gazed at Takuma emotionlessly. "_Yes._"

The vampire boy shrugged, a flicker of his old cheer returning. "We'll just have to go the slower route, then." Slinging her least-injured arm over his shoulders, he began to lead her through the sunlight toward the main staircase, vampires retreating left and right as they approached. All but one- Kaname walked at her side up the stairs, much to Reina's annoyance. She did not need his help. At the top, Takuma waved him off briskly. "You go and take care of Yuki, Kaname. I'm sure you can do something for her. I'll make sure Reina-san is all right."

"I'm counting on you, then," the pureblood murmured, before disappearing down the hall.

Takuma turned and led Reina off in the other direction, walking slowly for her benefit. "How are you feeling?"

"It's healing," she muttered darkly, turning her head to look back toward the stairs. "Shouldn't we…."

"Kaname has already called the headmaster to have someone sent in to clean the lounge. The rest of the students will be cleared out momentarily," the blonde vampire assured her. "If you wouldn't mind my asking….what on earth happened?"

"_Aido_ happened," the half-blood growled, brushing her hair out of her face impatiently. "He attacked us with his ice. He was angry….some stupid thing about Kaname that I didn't really understand."

"Aido goes too far. He is a bit of a drama king." Takuma admitted, pausing at his door to turn the handle with his free arm. "He admires Kaname very much, and he tries to show him true loyalty, but half the time he ends of creating more trouble for him instead of helping."

"He's an idiot," Reina sighed, gazing into the neatly-cut shadows of Takuma's room. The bed had a canopy, and there seemed to be huge stacks of books on every surface large enough to accommodate them. "He knew that Kaname thinks of Yuki as a favorite. We had a whole conversation about it when we met him in the lounge. And then he just turned around and attacked her! Who tries to appeal to somebody by threatening the safety of the person they value? It's ridiculous!"

"Did Yuki-san come to see Kaname?" Takuma asked, leaning her against the wall while he rummaged around in his dresser drawers. Reina nodded, her body growing warmer by the second. "Did you come with her? That's probably why Aido was angry. Not that you deserved to be attacked for it, but walking into a pureblood's dwelling unannounced and demanding to see him is something that is….generally not done in the vampire world."

"I have no interest in seeing that arrogant bastard!" Reina exclaimed, annoyed that this was the third time she had had to explain this today. "I came to see you about a certain matter. I just happened to run into Yuki on my way in."

"To see me?" The pale vampire straightened up in surprise, arms wrapped around a pair of soft linens. "What for? Wait- before you tell me, you might want to go into the bathroom and wash your cuts. Put these clothes on, too. The maid will kill me if she has to scrub blood out of the carpet."

Reina accepted the clothes much like she had taken the new uniform from him earlier, and retreated into the bathroom. She made sure the door was good and locked before removing her torn and bloody clothing. She didn't think of Takuma as a closet pervert, but one could never be too sure. She looked down at the clothing in her arms, and saw that it was a set of very smooth, dark blue pajamas. Placing them carefully on the counter, she picked up a folded washcloth from the rack and began to run it under hot water. The sink was porcelain; the counter was marble; the bathtub was vintage, with actual clawed feet. Her body was almost finished healing. Most of the cuts had vanished, leaving only blood behind. She could feel the ice needles still embedded in her skin actually melting inside her, which was the strangest feeling in the world. Only the blow which Aido had landed upon her stomach was still leaking blood. It was almost the same place in which she had struck him during their last battle. Tit for tat. They were even now. Blood from the wound had splashed onto her bra, and Reina tugged it off and dropped it into her pile of shredded clothes on the floor. Slowly, she ran the washcloth up and down her wound, thinking nothing, closing her eyes until she felt the heat dissipate. When she opened them, the skin was smooth once again. She had been lucky. She'd suffered many wounds, for sure, but none of them deep.

Smooth, dark blue fabric slid over her head, and she was surprised to find that it fit. Takuma was not that much bigger than her, after all. She wadded her bloody clothes up and made sure the bra and washcloth were well-concealed inside before opening the door and stepping back out into the room. Takuma was sitting on the edge of his bed, and he had pulled out a chair from his desk for her. Reina drifted slowly over and stood behind it. "I'm afraid I've quite ruined your washcloth."

"That's all right, I have plenty." Takuma smiled carelessly and indicated toward the chair. "You should sit. I'm very curious as to what it was that brought you all the way out here in the middle of the day."

Reina slid onto the cushioned chair, dropping the bundle of clothes on the floor underneath it. "Shizuka Hio," she stated flatly, and saw the aristocrat's eyes widen ever so slightly.

After a moment, he cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his hair. "Pardon me for asking, but how do you know that name?" he murmured quietly. Reina blinked. She was going to have to hedge around this without revealing Zero's secret.

"The headmaster told me….about a pureblood who went mad and- broke the code," she murmured back. Without meaning to, she realized that she and Takuma were both leaning toward each other like small children discussing a secret.

"That's right," Takuma nodded seriously. "Usually they say it's bad luck to even speak about her, but after what we've been through today….I don't know that things could get much worse, unless the roof were to fall in on us." He took a breath. "What do you want to know?"

"Who was she?" Reina moved her hand along the width of her stomach, where the cut had been. "What happened?"

Takuma drew in another breath, as if preparing to plunge into icy water. "Shizuka Hio….was a pureblood princess who was born into rather….unusual circumstances. She grew up without either father or mother, due to a strain of mental instability in her family which made them unfit to care for her and eventually led to their demise. From the moment of her birth, she was kept locked inside a special isolation cage, for her own safety."

"Wait, what? How is it legal to lock anyone inside a cage, much less a pureblood? And for _life?_" Reina blurted out, blinking rapidly.

Takuma nodded his head slowly. "Supposedly, it was to protect her. The aim was not so much to keep her in as to keep the rest of the world out. It was thought that if she could be separated from the pressures of the outside world, she might be protected from her parents' fate. But I….I rather think that the mental strain of years of isolation was probably a major contribution to her eventual….madness."

"Of course it was!" the half-blood girl exclaimed indignantly. "My God, is there no common sense to be found within the vampire world? What were they thinking?" She took a breath, and reminded herself that she could not change the past. "So then what happened?"

"This is where things become a bit murky," Takuma rolled his shoulder back, glancing toward his curtain-covered window. "Shizuka Hio escaped, and for awhile, nothing was heard from her. The vampire council was very displeased, of course. But things were quiet for a time, and then-"he wrinkled his brow gently. "Then there was some activity underground. I couldn't tell you exactly what, but it involved the Hunter Society. And then….the next thing I knew, all anyone could talk about was how Shizuka Hio had gone mad and killed three members of the Kiryu family. It was a huge incident. All of the treaties which we'd managed to drag out with the Hunters over the years were nearly invalidated-"

"_What?_" Reina demanded loudly. Her voice shot up several octaves, but she was too much in shock to notice. "She- she killed them? His family? Zero's family?"

"Yes, didn't you know? I don't know how you can't have heard about that," Takuma replied in surprise. "His mother, his father, and his twin brother. The body of the brother was never found. Zero Kiryu was the only survivor."

_There are real nightmares in this world,_ Reina thought as she stared at the shadowed wall. _That's why…._ But it explained so much which she hadn't understood before. Takuma waited politely for a moment, then seemed to take her silence as an invitation to continue. "That was the last that anyone I know of ever heard of Shizuka Hio. I suspect she went back into hiding. After that incident, she was put on the Hunters' execution list as a dangerous and unstable vampire. They haven't caught up with her yet, although I suspect it's not for lack of trying. The Kiryus were very well-respected within their own circle."

Reina bit her lip with fanged teeth. Her mouth was suddenly dry. "And Maria Kurenai? The new student?" she asked brusquely.

Takuma looked surprised at this statement. "She is a distant relative of the Hios, although I don't believe she would have ever met Shizuka. She is not a pureblood; her closer relations have traces of human blood in their veins. I didn't know you knew that."

"I didn't. I….I've got to go." Reina stood up abruptly and grabbed the wad of clothes underneath the chair. She turned toward the door, then turned back around as another question sizzled across her mind. "Hey, Takuma? In your opinion, if Shizuka Hio were to come to this Academy….not that she would do that, but if she did….what would she be after?"

The light-blonde vampire furrowed his brow again, placing his hands on either side of the bedcovers. "In my opinion….there are only two people that might draw Shizuka Hio to this Academy. Zero Kiryu and Kaname. She might want to challenge Kaname for his power, or she might want to finish what she started with Zero. However, with the way this Academy is set up, it would be impossible for her to sneak in here unnoticed. So please don't worry about that, Reina-san."

"I'm not worried," Reina mumbled, plucking at the dark blue pajamas.

Takuma stood up and advanced a step forward, gazing seriously into her face. "I'm not sure why you're so interested in Shizuka Hio, but you should know that Kaname knows more about these things than I do. You should ask him sometime. I'm under the impression that he wants to talk to you as well."

Reina growled. "I'm not _that_ interested."

"I know you don't like Kaname, Reina-san, but he's really not the person you seem to think he is. You don't know all the work he does to keep things together at this Academy."

This sentence seemed oddly familiar to Reina. She grunted and turned toward the door. He followed her to open it for her. "Hey, Takuma?" she asked again as he put his hand on the handle. It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him why he was so irrationally nice to her, against societal values and social mores and probably plain common sense as well. However, she found that she couldn't phrase the words in a way that didn't sound stupid. After a momentary silence, she pressed on. "You've been very….helpful. Before I go, is there anything else you can remember about Shizuka Hio, anything at all? It doesn't have to be important."

Takuma pinched the bridge of his nose, the same thing her mother did when she was trying to recall a memory. "….There is one other thing," he said finally, "but like you said, it's probably not important. Shizuka Hio was engaged at one point to another pureblood. But they never married."

"Who?" Reina asked, wondering who would be sadistic enough to marry a woman in a cage.

"His name was Rido Kuran."

Reina nearly choked on her next breath. "Kuran? Kaname's….father?"

"His uncle, actually," Takuma corrected in a tone that seemed like he wanted to put some distance between the family relationship. "But it won't do any good to know that now. Rido Kuran disappeared well before his fiancée ever escaped from her cage. Unlike her, he has never surfaced since. I think he might be dead. But don't ask Kaname about that. He doesn't like to talk about his family."

"Right," Reina murmured softly. She sighed and shook her head, staring at the dark wood paneling of the door. All this new information was congealing in her brain, too new and too strange to fit into any of her pre-created categories. "Well, I'd better go. By the way-" she plucked at her dark blue sleeve, "these are silk pajamas."

"I know. I'm glad they fit you." Takuma replied comfortably.

"You're really going to let me walk off wearing your silk pajamas? There's no guarantee that I'm not going to get attacked again on my way out of here." Reina said, raising her eyebrow.

The aristocrat laughed warmly. "Most of my clothes are silk. You can keep the pajamas, I've got plenty more. Housekeeping always complains that I leave my clothes lying out, but when they're made of silk, they can't really be called dirty, can they?" Once again, he beamed in a dazzlingly non-vampire-like way.

"You're giving me your silk pajamas," Reina repeated, still a bit incredulous. _Damn rich people and_ _their drawers full of expensive clothing…._ "Are you sure?"

"Of course! I hope you like them!" Takuma opened the door for her, then touched her lightly on the shoulder as she stepped through it. "Are you feeling well enough to make it back to the school campus?"

"Yes," Reina said. There was a long pause as one set of her deeply ingrained habits waged an intense internal battle with another. "Thanks." She nodded and breezed out the doorway, surprised that the effort involved in the uttering of a single word could feel like more than it had cost her to push a raging vampire through the wall. The hallways were quiet again. Reina took the back way out of the Moon Dorm, not wanting to have to walk back through the disaster area that was the lounge. She wondered what was happening to Yuki and Aido, but she knew that she was better off allowing Kaname to deal with those affairs. She had just made it to the door which led out into the terraced gardens when she sensed a presence behind her. Her fangs and claws were out before she even whirled around.

Akatsuki Kain backed up against the wall, holding his hands up in a non-threatening gesture. His face wore a look of apathy mixed with slight annoyance. "Hey, slow down there. Take it easy. I'm just here to deliver a message from Kaname-sama."

"What?" she snapped aggressively. She knew that this vampire was the cousin of the one that had just attacked her. Who knew whether they'd been planning it all along?

"He wants you to know that the abandoned building next to the clearing where you usually park your car is now being occupied by the new night class student, Maria Kurenai. She requested to move there for the time being because she didn't feel secure in the Moon Dorm." The redhead rolled his eyes and continued. "He would also like to request an audience with you sometime in the near future. He says 'at your convenience.' Also…." Akasuki Kain rubbed the back of his neck, as if resenting the words he was about to say. "He says to be careful. That's all."

"All right," Reina said in a level tone. The two vampires stared at each other for a moment longer. Akatsuki Kain smirked.

"Nice pajamas."

"Go to hell," Reina snapped, before storming out the door and proceeding to fume down the path and across the bridge that led away from the Moon Dorm. If she had her way, she would never come back.

All the curtains were drawn across the windows of the old abandoned dormitory as Reina approached her car, as expected for a building that contained a vampire. Still, she could not shake the feeling that someone was watching her. Even stranger was the sense that there was more than one person within the building. In fact, unless she as mistaken, it now seemed as though there was another extra presence alongside that of Maria Kurenai, bringing the grand total of unexplained auras up to two. What the hell?

Reina knew better than to barge in and find out for herself, especially after the day she'd just had. Still, she didn't realize until she'd gotten into her car and driven away that the foreboding feeling emanating from the building was now enhanced by the fact that the woods around it had fallen completely silent. Where there had once been a cacophony of birdcalls filling the spaces between the trees, there was now only a blank kind of darkness which seemed to negate all light and sound. Reina didn't know what to make of it, but as her car crunched across the grass, the wheels churned up a multitude of snow-like petals which had been lying amongst the green blades. It took a moment for her to recognize the surprisingly pale pinkness of cherry blossom petals, blooming out of season.


	11. Reluctant Socialization

**This chapter was written for Eien no Ajisai, who very nicely requested** **an update and convinced me to bring this story out of chronic hiatus.** **:)**

The next night, much to her annoyance, Reina was compelled to do something she had never done before; she had to park her car on the grounds of the Moon Dormitory. She could not park it in her usual spot beside the abandoned dorm on campus, now that the dorm was no longer abandoned. Whether or not Maria Kurenai had anything to do with Shizuka Hio, the fact remained that Reina was _not_ going to leave her precious vehicle unattended beside a building which housed a member of the Night Class. The little brat might damage it and then try to claim ignorance.

Reina made sure she found a spot on the Moon Dormitory grounds which was well away from any buildings or paths. She even tore down a few branches and laid them over her car to prevent it from being spotted by keen vampire eyes. She felt a little paranoid, but then again, after what had happened yesterday afternoon, she had no reason to doubt that the other vampires had spent the entirety of last night plotting for her head. Kaien Cross had given her last night off in what she suspected was a quiet gesture of gratitude for saving his daughter from serious injury. Reina had spent it with her own family. With all of her responsibilities at this school and the other one, she often worried she was missing out on precious time with them.

Now, unfortunately, she was back on schedule, and she was not at all looking forward to facing the hostile environment of her classes. Reina grumbled to herself as she swatted branches to the side, making her way out of the forest toward the setting sun and the bridge which would lead her to campus. She had just reconnected with the stone pathway when an irritatingly familiar voice came floating toward her from up ahead. "There you are, Reina-san."

"Go away," she snapped toward the tall, dark-haired figure of Kaname Kuran.

He detached himself from the tree he was leaning against and meandered toward her, keeping his distance. "Did Akatsuki not deliver the message that I wished to speak with you?"

"Yeah, he told me," Reina muttered gruffly, making sure her body language conveyed that this was not at all her wish.

Kaname smoothly ignored her dark aura. "Then I am afraid I must insist upon pursuing polite conversation, disagreeable as I know it is to you."

Reina could detect a bite of insult in this comment; however, before she could seize upon it, he had changed track completely. "First of all," he said, brushing dark-chocolate bangs out of his eyes, "I would like to thank you most graciously for protecting Yuki yesterday, and to apologize very deeply for the circumstances which required you to protect her."

Reina snorted, adjusting the lapel of her uniform. "I don't need you to thank me. It was my own decision. How….is Yuki?" she asked hesitantly, wondering how traumatized the little prefect had been after yesterday's incident.

"She will be all right. She is very resilient." Kaname murmured, his dark eyes flickering with warmth for the barest hint of a second. "She was uninjured, thanks to your efforts, so she has continued with her duties as a Guardian. I believe she is also attempting to make you a cake as a thank-you gift."

Reina tried not to let this news bother her. She did like cake, but the last thing she wanted was an enormous serving of happiness and gratitude which she would have no idea what to do with.

"On the subject of Aido, he has been banned from school for an additional week, and I am currently pursuing other disciplinary actions which will discourage this kind of behavior in the future."

This time Reina growled, remembering what Aido had said before he attacked them. "They're not going to stop, not even if you tell them to. _You're_ the reason Aido attacked us in the first place. He was angry because you're always trying to talk to us, paying us special attention. They care a lot about who you talk to, haven't you noticed? The Night Class students _really_ like you. Like, in a creepy way." Reina tossed her head and picked up the pace, the bridge coming into view ahead. "That's one of the main reasons I don't want anyone here to know what I am. I don't mind being ignored or even treated badly. I've dealt with it all before, so it's fine. But if people slavered over me the way they do with you, I'd probably punch them." Reina cut her eyes back to the figure following silently behind her, his face an inscrutable blank. "Yuki likes the attention you give her, and what happens between you two is none of my business. But if you really want to thank me for protecting her, you will _leave me alone._ Stop talking to me. I don't want the attention, and I don't need the animosity I get from the Night Class because of it."

For a moment, she hoped he would stop walking and let her carry on without him. Then his voice welled over her right shoulder. "I accept these are your true feelings, Reina-san. However, this is the point where I must be unquestionably rude and say that I cannot do that."

"Well, why not?!" she demanded loudly, causing a group of vampires up ahead to turn around and look at them. Kaname touched her on the shoulder to slow her down as they began to cross the bridge, keeping them out of earshot.

"I cannot do that because of what you are to the Night Class. You and I are the pillars that are holding up the peaceful way of life we have here. I keep the Night Class controlled and disciplined, and your blood creates the tablets which we need to continue this non-violent way of life." Kaname tilted his head musingly. "You know, an interesting fact about pillars- in order to provide the most stable support for a roof, they need to stand apart from each other. If they stood side-by-side, the structure would be unbalanced and could easily collapse. But by standing on opposite sides, they bring the whole of the edifice together."

Reina crossed her arms and gave him a deadpan glare. "I'm not buying into that metaphor. And even if I did, we're not the only pillars. Kaien Cross and Zero Kiryu and Yuki as well-"

"Yes, them as well," Kaname agreed tranquilly. "They will also take their places. But for now, there is something else I wanted to talk to you about- the reason you came to the Moon Dormitory yesterday. Ichijo has informed me that he had a conversation with you about a certain pureblood called Shizuka Hio."

Reina's back bristled. "What's it to you?" she asked aggressively, reminding herself to glare at Takuma the next time she saw him.

"To me, it is….a concern." Kaname suddenly stopped walking entirely, causing Reina to stop too. "Reina-san, I want you to understand-"

"Ta- I mean, Ichijo-san said it was impossible for Shizuka Hio to slip into this academy. It _is_ impossible, isn't it?" Reina interrupted, eyeing the group of Night Class students gathered at the gate up ahead.

Kaname cleared his throat and followed her gaze. "Nothing is impossible," he murmured subversively. "However, Reina-san, I want you to understand that I allowed Maria Kurenai to enroll here, knowing she was a relative of Shizuka's. This is something which needs to occur in order for that which I care about to be made safe from future threats. I know this is an overused human expression, but I know what I am doing. So I would ask you to please refrain from interfering in the way things play out."

Reina gauged him critically out of the corner of her eyes, then rolled them up toward the sky. "You think too much, Kuran. I don't know where you get the idea that I'm at all interested in getting involved in whatever little debacle you're planning. The only thing that would compel me to act would be a threat to the safety of this academy or its students. If that occurs, all bets are off." Reina shrugged darkly as the vampires at the gate began to turn around and notice them standing there. "Otherwise, I don't give a damn what you do, as long as you leave me out of it."

"Then we are agreed," Kaname murmured, beginning to walk again. "There is one more thing I wanted to discuss with you, but as it is not terribly urgent, I believe it can-"

"Kaname-sama!"

Reina flinched automatically at the voices of Kaname's supporters, taking notice of their leader. She drifted off to the side and attached herself to the stone railing so she would not have to get too close to them.

"It can wait." Kaname finished, inclining his head slightly. "Thank you for talking with me, Reina-san. I hope you have a good night."

The half-blood girl grumbled something unintelligibly as she watched the white-clothed, straight-backed figure depart toward the eager ranks of his in-group. It galled her to realize nearly every student on the bridge was looking her way- the vampires from before must have let them know she and Kaname had walked up from the woods together. Why the hell were they all so _interested?_ Reina fumed to herself as she stared determinedly into the flowing water. Once again, no one would dare question the pureblood's choices of whom to spend time with, but everyone would blame _her_ for talking to him, even though _he_ had initiated, _he_ had persisted, _he_ had insisted she hear him out. Stupid Kuran and his stupid fans and his stupid _pillars…._

Reina's mood only darkened when she heard a very annoying sound coming from the other side of the gates- the sound of dozens of squealing girls, pushing and shoving and staggering around, waiting desperately to see the faces of their favorite Night Class boys. The young girl sighed and decided to walk in the far back, where she would hopefully go unnoticed. This parade of idiocy was one of the main reasons she always parked on campus, so she would never have to enter through the gates. She did not know why Kaien Cross couldn't just make curfew a little earlier for the Day Class, so they would have no time to engage in such theatrics.

The gates swung open and the screams grew more piercing. Reina waited until all the Night Class students had filed out before following, slipping after them just as the gates swung shut. As she'd hoped, she was able to walk through the crowd without much harassment, given that she was female and the majority of the Day Class had come to see the males. She had just about made it past them when she heard a strained voice calling from her left. "Excuse me! Um-! Reina-san!"

She turned to see Yuki Cross, arms spread wide and body bent halfway backward as she struggled to hold back a line of Day Class girls who were entirely too excited. Giving up her apathetic walk, Reina approached and raised her eyebrow. The shorter prefect managed a smile despite her situation. "I was wondering- well, I was wondering if- that is- if you might like to come to the Headmaster's quarters after your first class? I- well, I wanted to say thank you for yesterday, so….I made something for you."

She couldn't say no- not to that hopeful face, not in front of all these people. Reina nodded brusquely. "Sure. That….that sounds nice. I'll be there. And _you lot._" She advanced suddenly on the group of girls who were slowly pushing Yuki backward. "Quit behaving like maniacs. You're almost adults, so act like it."

Yuki beamed while the other girls recoiled from her glare and huddled together meekly. Reina slung her bookbag over her shoulder and continued on her way, noticing Kiryu on the other side of the walk, staring down a group of girls as if daring them to try to sneak past him. She rolled her eyes at the absurdity of this academy, and continued on toward the towering academic building.

Her first class was a non-event. Reina did not know for certain, but she suspected that Kaname Kuran might have given the entire Night Class a lecture about leaving her alone. Everyone seemed to be resisting the urge to look at her as she made her way to the back of the class. Reina sat in her usual place and tried to devote her mind to the lesson while various worries bounced around her consciousness. Her gaze kept returning to the grey back of Maria Kurenai's head, and the conversation she had had with Kaname. So he had allowed her to enroll here, for purposes unknown. The more Reina thought about it, the more confusing it seemed. This girl was _not_ Shizuka Hio. She just wasn't. She wasn't even a pureblood. So why was Zero so on edge, and why had Kaname been so evasive when she had asked him whether Shizuka could get into this academy? And if she did slip in, _somehow,_ would the academy still be safe?

All these worries had given her a headache by the time the instructor ended the class. Reina waited for the majority of students to file out before hurrying after them. On the way, she accomplished her goal of glaring at Takuma, who had the decency to look appropriately abashed. Slightly more satisfied, Reina wandered warily toward the administrative building, hoping Yuki had not gone overboard with trying to thank her.

At least she had not put up streamers. However, it became clear to Reina upon entering the headmaster's quarters that Kaien Cross had also had a hand in tonight's event. He seemed to have made an entire dinner to compliment Yuki's cake, and Reina was assaulted with a medley of scents upon opening the door. She did not have enough warning time to dodge the headmaster as he slung an arm around her shoulders and crowed, "So glad you could make it, Reina! Have a seat! I've been meaning to cook a nice dinner for you for a long time, and now we can all join in!"

At least this time he wasn't roasting fish indoors, Reina figured as she was shuttled into a chair in the center of the room. Yuki was carrying out plates and Kaien Cross was insisting on describing the food as his very own recipe. The half-blood girl did not see him at first, because he had sequestered himself in a dark corner of the room, but at second glance she spotted Zero hunched over, looking gloomy and pressured. Reina guessed that Yuki and Kaien had probably guilted him into being here, which made her feel even more uncomfortable. Before she could say more than, "You didn't have to…." she found herself being served by the headmaster while Yuki practically dragged Zero to the table with the rest of them. "I hope you like it, Reina-san! I know my father's cooking is a little….unorthodox…." Yuki smiled happily as they settled in.

Reina cleared her throat, accepting that there was no escape from the current situation. "It's fine….he makes his special recipes for me every month after we come out of the underground, so I've taken a liking to them…."

"And here's the chicken teriyaki recipe I got from your mother the last time I joined your family for dinner!" Kaien Cross exclaimed, waving his chopsticks in the air enthusiastically. "Tell me, how are your parents lately, Reina? And your sister?"

Reina swallowed thickly. "Ah….they're….good. My sister too. They're all….good. We went to the, um….the planetarium last night…." It went against every habit in her personality to discuss her human family here at Cross Academy, even though the only ones before her were the headmaster and his children. It still didn't feel safe. It probably never would. Ever since they had been threatened because of her, she had vowed that she would keep their lives a secret in the night world. She scrambled mentally to change the subject. "So, um, how is school going for you, Yuki….and Kiryu?"

The silver-haired boy eyed her swiftly over the top of the rice bowl and said nothing. Fortunately, Yuki launched into a detailed description of the Day Class' excitement concerning some sort of upcoming annual ball, to which Reina could nod politely and feign interest. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Zero staring dejectedly at the plates of food laid before him. Vampires were rather limited in the types of food they could eat- dairy tended to make them sick, as did excess amounts of yeast. They could tolerate liquids better than solids, but nothing replaced the stringent need for blood. Reina wondered if it was awkward for Zero to be sitting across a dinner table from the person who had recently become his source of sustenance. It was certainly awkward for her. After Yuki finished talking about the ball, Kaien Cross began a humorous story about a past academy dance during which several Day Class boys managed to light their trousers on fire trying to impress the Night Class girls. Reina found herself able to relax a little more and enjoy the laid-back, familial atmosphere around the table. She made sure not to look at Zero, as any reminder that she was there seemed to ruin the meal for him.

Yuki was halfway through cutting her cake when Kaien Cross attempted to sneak a photograph of all of them around the table. Reina and Zero immediately protested and tried to wrest the camera away from him. The headmaster danced backward across the room, dodging their hands and still taking pictures. Yuki tried to break them up, but ended up tripping over Zero and bringing them both tumbling to the floor. Meanwhile, Reina managed to snatch the camera from Kaien Cross, and she promptly fled up the wall to prevent him from getting it back. In the midst of all this chaos, the door suddenly swung open. "Oh."

Everyone turned to look at the figure of the Moon Dormitory's president. "I apologize…. I didn't realize you were having a….party? I can come back…."

"We're okay, we're fine!" Yuki insisted, while the headmaster abandoned his attempts to retrieve the camera and ushered the pureblood inside to have a slice of cake. Without any consultation, Reina and Zero immediately departed through the bay doors to the balcony.

The half-blood girl set the camera down and sighed, wondering how she had gotten sucked into the academy's absurdity. Tilting her body sideways, she hoisted herself onto the ledge and eyed the ground below. "Well, this has been….eventful, but I think I ought to-"

"Don't leave," Zero interrupted, seizing the edge of her shirt. "Not that I care, particularly, but Yuki will be depressed if you don't eat the cake she made for you. She's hopeless in the kitchen, so it took her three tries to make something edible."

"She didn't have to do all that…." Reina trailed off, glancing back into the living room. "Well, I guess I'll stay…." She stepped off the ledge and settled into a chair on the balcony. Zero leaned against a stone birdbath and stared at the section of the sky which would host the sunrise in several more hours. She wondered if it was difficult for him to stay awake in the daytime now that he was a vampire. She wondered if Kaname had agreed to halt Zero's transfer to the Night Class. She almost asked him, but she didn't want to piss him off when they were trying to have a nice dinner with the headmaster and Yuki.

After almost ten minutes of semi-comfortable silence, Zero moved to sit on the ledge above the treeline, his back to her. She could not see his face, so his rough voice startled her from her sneaking sleepiness. "I don't have anything to give you that you'd want. I don't even know what you like, really. But I suppose I should say thank you as well. For….your blood. It's not….it's not that I _want_ your blood. I _hate_ having to drink blood. But I….I still have goals I need to accomplish. I'm not ready for my life to be over yet. So, thank you for….letting me make that choice."

Reina did not know what to say, but she felt she should say something. "It's okay," she murmured, craning her head back to take in the sky full of stars dripping light above their heads. She thought of his dead family, and her living family which could have been like his. "It's really, really okay."

Eventually, Kaname seemed to take the hint that Reina and Zero were not going to come back inside until he left. He bade Yuki goodbye and thanked her for the cake. Reina glimpsed the little prefect blushing through the balcony window. Zero stood up to return to the living room, and Reina followed him, allowing herself to look at him up close as a startling realization washed over her. The tall boy twitched and met her gaze warily. "Why are you looking at me?"

"You really are better now, aren't you?" she couldn't stop herself from asking, tilting her head and studying the contours of his face. "Heh." The barest hint of a smile worked its way along her lips before she turned her head to hide it, leading the way into the living room. She thought, but did not say aloud, _My blood made you better._ _It did a good thing._

Yuki's cake was not delicious, but it was at least tasty, so Reina did not have to pretend to enjoy it. She was glad to see that the little prefect appeared remarkably uncowed by Aido's idiocy, and also by the myriad of secrets she had recently discovered. Kaname was right about one thing, Reina figured as she held her plate out for seconds. Yuki was remarkably resilient, which was probably the only reason she could work at a school like this for so long and still maintain her composure.

The meal ended with the headmaster knocking over one of the candles on the table and setting fire to his napkin, after which he was promptly doused with the water they had been using for tea. He didn't seem to mind very much. As Reina was being waved goodbye, she thought she glimpsed a streak of grey slide past the nearest window out of the corner of her eye. But when she turned to look properly, there was nothing there except the first droplets of an unexpected rainstorm.

**So, what do you guys think...? Should I do another chapter?**


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